Racing: Classy mare will miss feature

Sir Patrick Hogan, on hand to greet Katie Lee after she won the Cambridge Stud Eight Carat Classic at Ellerslie last season, has decided the mare will open her account this season at Ruakaka. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Katie Lee became the first wet-track victim of Saturday's $250,000 Mudgway Stakes at Hastings.

A meeting yesterday between co-owner Sir Patrick Hogan and co-trainer Debbie Rogerson resulted in the classy mare being pulled out of the 1200m weight-for-age sprint, first leg of the Hastings spring triple crown.

The Hastings track is heavy and forecasts of unpredictable weather for this week suggest limited opportunity for it to greatly improve by the weekend.

Local trainers are tipping a track rating for Saturday bordering on slow and heavy if the forecast for showers tomorrow and some rain on Thursday are close to the mark.

"She's not good in the wet, so it wasn't worth putting her on a track like that," said Debbie Rogerson as she came out of the meeting.

"We've missed out on plan A, which was to run in the Foxbridge Plate then into the Mudgway, so it makes sense to go to plan B."

Katie Lee was withdrawn on the morning of the Foxbridge Plate because of the heavy Te Rapa track conditions.

To run her on Saturday would have meant risking what the trainers of many of the Mudgway runners fear - what will a hard run first-up in testing ground do to the spring campaign for their horses?

"Plan B is to run in the 1200m sprint at Ruakaka coming up [September 11] then head to Melbourne and run her in the group two fillies and mares over 1400m, a race that has been known as the Rose Of Kingston Stakes.

"It's A$200,000, so it's the same stakemoney, but money is not the criteria here - it's about giving her reasonable footing." Beyond that, Katie Lee is likely to be aimed at the group one metric mile fillies and mares' race on Derby Day (October 30) on the opening of the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington, the race won a few years ago by Miss Potential.

"Plan C is to look at the Cox Plate if the field looks like dropping away.

"A lot can happen between now and Cox Plate time. We'll just monitor how things go."

Rogerson said regular rider Opie Bosson would be offered the rides in Melbourne.

"The first race at Flemington is on October 2, the same day as what was the Kelt Capital, so it will be up to Opie, but he'll certainly have first refusal."

News of Katie Lee's defection could possibly change the TAB market, which late yesterday had Mufhasa as the $4.50 favourite, ahead of Wall Street at $5, Keep The Peace at $6 and Katie next on $8.

Keep The Peace, once a $16 Mudgway chance, has shortened steadily.

But not as quickly as it would have three weeks ago if some of the stable connections had been successful in the first two legs of a multi bet ending on the Cambridge mare in the Mudgway.

The payout was a couple of rounds of drinks short of $200,000, which would have given TAB bookies nightmares about assessing her price for Saturday.

Trainer Shaune Ritchie said yesterday he was very happy going into the race.

"We've got one thing on a few of the horses in that our programme has gone exactly as we planned it.

"Some of the trainers have missed either trials or exhibition gallops because of the weather, but we've been lucky enough to fit in both comfortably."

Keep The Peace is a leanish type who does not require a massive amount of work to have her fit for a first-up race.

"We're right on track to run a big race. James [McDonald] came and rode her her Saturday morning and was very pleased."

The full Mudgway market: $4.50 Mufhasa, $5 Wall Street, $6 Keep The Peace, $8 Katie Lee, $10 Pennacchio, Vonusti; $12 Fritzy Boy, Miss Maren, Run Like Al, The Hombre; $14 Illuminates, Bulginbaah; $21 Beautiful Girl, $31 Vosne Romanee, Veloce Bella, Hold It Harvey, Firebolt; $41 Eileen Dubh, Jacowils, $51 Lamington Vegas, Salvatore, My Astron, $101 I Am Sam, Spare A Fortune.

The Rogerson stable might have one star heading away from the Mudgway, but it will have another going in the opposite direction from across the Tasman.

Illuminates, from the team's stable in Sydney, is the winner of more than A$800,000 and has three wins on heavy ground and two on slow surfaces, including a victory at Warwick Farm on Saturday.

Mudgway Stakes

* Katie Lee was pulled out yesterday because of the likelihood of a slow or heavy surface.

* She will instead head to Melbourne via a first-up sprint at Ruakaka.

* Opie Bosson has been offered the rides in Australia.