Racing: Harrison happy to stay home

The Moroney brothers have Tinseltown engaged in the Brisbane Cup. Photo / Dean Purcell

Earl Harrison might have changed plans with Appleton's Lass, but that has nothing to do with her chances in tomorrow's $17,000 Norris Ward McKinnon 2000 at Te Rapa.

The Cambridge trainer and his owners have scrapped plans to take the mare to Australia for some of the country cups at the end of the Queensland carnival.

However, it's not because of the mare's form - Appleton's Lass looked good winning at Ellerslie two weeks ago and is a top chance to make it two on end tomorrow.

"It came down to a couple of factors and one of them was that with the exchange rate there was no guarantee she would make the field in a few of those races," said Harrison.

"You would probably have to have won a minimum of five races to make some of those fields and it wasn't worth the risk."

Plans have been revised for after tomorrow.

"She's copping the wet tracks well, so the Kiwifruit Cup and the J F Grylls race at Te Awamutu are ideal type races."

Harrison says he'd love to win the race that carries the name of one of his former great mates, the late Johnny Grylls.

"Then there's the Taumarunui Cup after those."

Appleton's Lass will again be ridden by Rogan Norvall.

Montjee may be ready to do something after one lead-up run.

He didn't show up here over 1600m on May 22, but should be fitter for that race and the jump to 2000m suits, as will the track which was yesterday rated a slow (9).

Our Star Pupil hadn't been winning them out of turn, but there was an air of authority about the way he drove past the opposition in the home straight on his home track at Tauranga last start.

The 59kg is not an easy task, but he had 58kg at Tauranga.

* The Mike and Paul Moroney stable has plenty of focus in Queensland tomorrow with Tinseltown in the A$300,000 Brisbane Cup and Marheta engaged in the A$500,000 Queensland Derby.

But the brothers won't mind if they pick up a $6000 maiden race at Avondale today with Keep Eve.

After all, Keep Eve is a rising 4-year-old mare who has had only one race start. And it was a pretty impressive performance.

The Keeper mare made her debut at Pukekohe on February 14 and looked to have no chance after beginning slowly.

After that, she covered a huge amount of extra ground from the 800m yet still managed to finish off strongly into third, being beaten less than 1 lengths.

Keep Eve has had a break and comes back to racing today.

The conditions will be considerably worse than the dead track she struck at Pukekohe, but most of the horses by Keeper manage rain-affected footing at least reasonably well. Avondale yesterday was rated a slow (7).

The wide barrier looks unattractive, but Tivoli will be a big winning chance in Race 8 if she can overcome at least part of the disadvantage.

She has looked promising in only four runs to date and is still at the improving stage.

Apatchee Tute is better than her form reads and she drops back in class to take on this field.