Racing: Fitness could beat Banner

Winforu is rated an each-way chance in the Ashburton Flying Stakes tomorrow. Picture / Derek Flynn

Robert Dunn cuts straight to the point when assessing the win prospects of pacing princess Mainland Banner in the Group Two Ashburton Flying Stakes tomorrow afternoon.

"I don't know how forward she is, fitness wise, because she doesn't over extend herself training," said the Christchurch-based trainer.

"We've given her just the one trial which was on Tuesday at Ashburton. It was a pretty tamely run event with the horses sprinting up the home straight. I always monitor her heart rate whenever I train her and it was quite high after the trial which means she's still off peak fitness.

"I'm not saying she can't win on Monday but she's very vulnerable as she missed 10 days of training due to injury and it was at a crucial time.

"I've trained a large number of horses that have competed in these tough free-for-all races.

"My gut feeling is that she's not ready for a real gut buster first-up after such a long break."

With rugged stayers Flashing Red, Harnetts Creek, White Arrow and Onedin Legacy entered, Mainland Banner would not want to be driven in front in the 2400m event as she would then be subjected to too much pressure throughout.

Flashing Red showed no mercy two starts ago when savaging Roman Gladiator in front during the Hannon Memorial.

The sit-sprint pacers like Roman Gladiator, Winforu and The Flyin Doctor will all rate solid each-way chances in this standing start feature.

Dunn has another racing date marked on his calendar as a more suitable guide to Mainland Banner making it back-to-back NZ Cups.

"I think punters can watch her race on Monday and draw their own conclusion as to how well she's racing. November 3, in my mind, is the race I'll really know where I stand with her.

"It's a handicap race at Addington with a 20-metre back mark. By then she would've had the race at Ashburton plus some additional training and I'll get a good line on how we're placed with her after that run."