Racing: Concerted effort needed in feature

Photo / Thinkstock

Cambridge jockey Shelley Houston is hoping for one thing in today's $23,500 EIF International McGregor Grant Steeplechase - concentration.

It's something her mount Climbing High is not good at.

If you look at Climbing High's record on paper you would assume he is not a good jumper.

He blundered and dropped Houston in this race last year and fell in the Waikato Steeplechase last start.

In fact, he is a terrific jumper, but sometimes his mind wanders when it should be focusing on picking his feet up and landing properly.

Those mishaps mean Climbing High has dropped back to a competitive weight.

When he dropped Houston at the 1600m fence in this race last year he was carrying 68kg as the $2.50 favourite.

This time, he has 66kg. In today's very testing conditions that 2kg is a lot more than it sounds.

Climbing High was one race short when Volkswagin beat him in the Te Rapa lead-up to the Waikato Steeplechase. Despite that he was only narrowly beaten when giving Volkswagin 5.5kg.

This afternoon, that drops back to 2.5kg.

They could well be the quinella result again.

The race is "made" by the appearance of the country's top jumper Hypnotize, who will attempt an extremely difficult win under a crushing 72kg in his first start since winning last September's Great Northern Steeples for a third time.

Hypnotize won a 2000m flat race fresh from a spell in 2007 before going on to the first of his Pakuranga Hunt Cup-Great Northern doubles, but since then has always needed a run before starting to show his best form.

The headliner is rising 12 years old and last winter looked to be in just about the best form of his career.

Despite that, if he can win under 72kg today in his first race for 275 days, it will make even bigger headlines than his Northern victories and say an awful lot about the talents of his part-owner and trainer Raymond Connors.