Racing: Gee I Jane armed and dangerous

Scott Seamer

A wide barrier draw might just be the bit of luck Gee I Jane needs to break her group one hoodoo.

Gee I Jane has drawn 11 in a field of 15 for today's $120,000 Telegraph Handicap (1200m) at Trentham and the horse's Waikato trainer Neville Couchman is hopeful it can turn into a positive.

Gee I Jane was last year dogged with bad luck in New Zealand's two group one 1200m races.

In the 2005 Railway Handicap at Ellerslie, she suffered severe interference on the home turn before beating all but Australian visitor Recurring.

In last year's Telegraph, when starting from an inside barrier, she finished sixth after being held up for a run in the straight.

Gee I Jane was again a runner in the Railway at the beginning of this month but was again without luck.

She was a strong-finishing second to Baldessarini but was checked with about 500m to run when racing three back on the inside.

Couchman sees today's wide draw as a chance to stay out of trouble.

"I was hoping to draw outside seven or eight," Couchman said.

"Last year [from barrier six] she ended up getting to the fence and never got out."

Couchman said he would tell Australian jockey Scott Seamer, who rode Gee I Jane at Ellerslie, not to be concerned at racing wide over what is nearly a straight course.

"You are only running a dog leg, so you are not going to cover a lot of extra ground," he said.

"All you need is a bit of cover, then you can peel out for a bit of room in the straight and then you're a chance."

Seamer probably doesn't need telling to chance his arm by racing a little wide.

According to Couchman it was Seamer who suggested, in hindsight, that might have been the best option in the Railway last start.

"Seamer said to me he wouldn't have minded sitting three deep the whole way in the Railway and then he could have got a run when he wanted.

"When he came in, he said she was a certainty beat. He said he was getting held up at the wrong time. He was all over the heels of the horse in front at the 550 and never hit her with the stick until the final furlong (200m)."

Gee I Jane's run in the Railway was her first start since an unsuccessful three-race spring campaign in Melbourne.

Couchman said it was found after the last of the three races she was suffering from a lung infection.

He said if Gee I Jane raced up to expectations today he would like to return to Australia with her.

One race he had in mind was the A$1 million Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) in Brisbane during the winter.

Gee I Jane was this week listed as the third favourite, at a dividend of $7.50, on the New Zealand TAB's fixed-odds market while the ruling favourite, at $2.40, was Railway winner Baldessarini.

Baldessarini, a five-year-old gelding by Green Perfume, has hit his straps this season after being the proverbial bridesmaid last season when finishing second in four of six starts.

This season Baldessarini has racked up five wins from six starts and Manawatu trainer Ann Herbert has ambitious plans for the horse if he completes the Railway-Telegraph double.

Herbert is looking at sending Baldessarini to Melbourne, where one aim would be the A$400,000 Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley next month.

Herbert said she was also considering taking on Britain's best sprinters for races in the Global Sprint Challenges races at Royal Ascot in England in June.

Second favourite, at $6 for the Telegraph, was Keeninsky from the transtasman stable of Graeme Rogerson and Stephen Autridge.

Keeninsky won last year's Telegraph at his first start for more than two months but faces a much tougher task this time round.

The Stravinsky four-year-old stallion has not raced for 10 months after having bone chips removed from a leg but was a five-length trials winner in November and beat all but Gee I Jane in another trial last month.

Autridge said the Telegraph was the ideal race to set Keeninsky for.

All seven of his wins have been on left-handed tracks, five of them have been up to 1200m and he is unbeaten in two starts at Trentham.

Keeninsky is one of three runners for the Rogerson-Autridge stable. The other two are Pin Up Boy and Manten.

Pin Up Boy comes into the race with a last-start third in the Railway after leading while Manten has won two of his four starts this season.

- NZPA