Racing: Classy field provides opportunity

Wall Street will clash with Make The Peace (red and yellow colours) at Te Rapa on Saturday. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

The toughest job TAB bookies face this week is framing their first market for Saturday's $200,000 Waikato Draught Sprint at Te Rapa.

Trying to line up Wall Street, Mufhasa, Coup Align, Keep The Peace, Katie Lee and We Can Say It Now is headache material.

The smarties will be waiting to pounce quickly on any perceived value around one or more of those runners when the TAB comes up with its pricings.

Trying to set a fair market with that half dozen will not be easy and there could well be some value.

There is no commonality through the formlines of, say, Wall Street and We Can Say It Now to act as a guide for bookmakers.

The clash of that pair alone will be a massive highlight.

We Can Say It Now will have had 70 days between races since her stunning group one victory in the Captain Cook Stakes under weight-for-age at Trentham and it will have been 100 days since Wall Street scored a short half-head victory in the Emirates Stakes on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington.

The word from the Baker stable at Cambridge is that We Can Say It Now is training "super".

So is Mr Tipsy, who went close to sending punters broke when he turned in a shocker in the Wellington Cup.

"The only thing we can put it down to is the shifty track," says co-trainer Murray Baker, "because he's always managed a wet surface in the past."

The stable is so happy with Mr Tipsy he was flown to Tasmania, where he will contest Sunday's A$300,000 Hobart Cup and possibly the A$225,000 Launceston Cup on the 25th.

It was the connections of a pretty smart sprinter who asked Internal Affairs to check the validity of barrier draws at New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing.

The owners believed the mathematical equation required to create the succession of wide barriers the horse had received was way out of the ball park and they lodged an official complaint.

Internal Affairs gave the barrier draws the thumbs up after witnessing all of the draws for last Saturday's meetings.

Put it down to bad luck guys.

The $200,000 Darci Brahma International at Te Rapa this Saturday has a slightly more even look about it when compared with the sprint.

Booming, Red Ruler, Vosne Romanee, Veloce Bella, Mill Duckie, November Rain, Obsession, Passchendaele and Arakti will do battle.

Nice line-up.

Trainer John Bary says it will be at least Sunday or Monday before he has any idea if he'll add the Avondale Guineas at Ellerslie on Saturday week to Jimmy Choux's $2.2 million Derby preparation.

"This sounds silly, but he actually tells us when he's read to start working again," said Bary.

"He mopes around his paddock and is boxed at night then one day he'll charge right up to you and basically say: 'I'm ready to do some more work'. He's a character."

Bary said Jimmy Choux is slightly muscle sore from the very firm track in Saturday's Waikato Guineas victory, but is showing no signs of shin soreness.

What's up Doc?

Plenty if you look at Sha Tin's betting figures from the weekend, which was the Chinese New Year's Day in the Year Of The Rabbit.

Encouraged either by the luck of the Rabbit, or by the unseasonal warm weather, nearly 100,000 on-course punters went crazy with a 8.6 per cent increase in turnover.

Biggest Chinese New Year meeting since 2001.