Racing: Drama doesn't end in Tauranga

Surely Sacred is one of the better chances in a Kiwi-packed Rosehill Guineas tomorrow. Photo / Trish Dunell

Trainer Tony Pike's greatest rival at Rosehill tomorrow could be his best friend at Tauranga just 10 minutes earlier.

The Cambridge horseman is in Sydney with Surely Sacred, one of the better chances in a Kiwi-packed Rosehill Guineas where the main threat is exceptional 3-year-old The Autumn Sun.

The latter is trained by Pike's mate Chris Waller, the pair having formed a great association over the years.

But while they will be rivals in the Rosehill mud, it was Waller who has gifted Pike a chance to win the $100,000 Windsor Park Stud Trophy at Tauranga tomorrow, run just 10 minutes before the Guineas.

Waller was the trainer of Endless Drama, the former Irish 2000 Guineas runner-up who has placed form behind Winx in Sydney but now finds himself in Pike's care and carrying the topweight in a far easier race than what he is used to tomorrow.

"He is obviously a very good horse at his best and he came over here (NZ) looking for a group one win," explains Pike. "He disappointed in the group one at Otaki but is way better than that. And Chris was honest about him, saying he has five or six top horses in this horse's grade in Sydney, so the owners decided to leave him with me.

"He is owned by Qatar Bloodstock and it is great to have a horse for them and I really think he can win if he produces anything like his best.

"Will he do that? I think he can, he can really gallop and I expect a big improvement on what we saw from him at Otaki."

While the Pike-Waller association has resulted in Endless Drama heading to Tauranga, Pike isn't expecting the Sydney trainer to be quite so generous at Rosehill tomorrow.

While he is thrilled with the condition of Surely Sacred heading into the Guineas he says beating The Autumn Sun might be quite another matter.

"If you take The Autumn Sun out of the race I think the Kiwis would just about be the top five favourites," says Pike.

"But he will be very hard to beat, especially at 2000m.

"All of us are here for the Derby though (April 6) and I don't think The Autumn Sun will be in that.

"So if we are running on well I'll be happy."

Surely Sacred might sit alongside Madison County as the most talented of our male 3-year-old crop but unfortunately he has been luckless in both of our $1 million races, the Karaka Classic and the Derby.

He has drawn wide tomorrow but that could be the place to be on what shapes as a potentially heavy Rosehill and which one of the five Kiwis in the Guineas emerges as the leading ATC Derby hope will be an interesting sub-plot to the huge Golden Slipper meeting.

While there will be no New Zealand-trained horses in the Slipper (again) the Kiwi roll call of Avantage (race one), Zacada and Vin De Dance (Manion Cup) and Danzdanzdance and He's Eminent (Ranvet Stakes) will ensure tomorrow's meeting is one of the most eagerly-anticipated Sydney meetings for New Zealand punters in years.