Racing: Heavy track rules out top filly

Trainer Murray Baker. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

It was not a snap decision by Murray and Bjorn Baker to late scratch We Can Say It Now from the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton on Saturday.

The decision that shocked punters had been set in concrete earlier in the day.

The Bakers had been in consultation with owner Paul Makin in Hong Kong long before the mid-afternoon scratching had been announced.

"We'd all agreed that if the track was downgraded to heavy we wouldn't run," said Murray Baker yesterday.

"She doesn't really go well in heavy ground."

Riccarton was downgraded from a slow 8 to a heavy 10 midway through the programme.

A big influencing factor was the $300,000 New Zealand Bloodstock 1000 Guineas sitting there this Saturday.

"It's not as though there wasn't another race for her," said Baker.

The stable had Twilight Savings in the 2000 Guineas and the final result was exactly as Murray Baker had predicted - the filly was a run short after spring setbacks in her preparation.

Twilight Savings went up to win at the 300m, but in the testing conditions Jimmy Choux and He's Remarkable proved too strong and she was beaten by a long neck and half a head.

"I thought that was a very brave run," said Baker. "We would have loved to have been able to give her just one more run. She'd had setback after setback."

Twilight Savings has pulled up well and will take her place alongside We Can Say It Now in Saturday's 1000 Guineas.

Two of the stable's spring heroes in Melbourne, Derby winner Lion Tamer and Harris Tweed, arrived back in Cambridge on Saturday.

"It's remarkable given the hard racing how well they've come through it," said Baker.

Although nothing has been finalised, Harris Tweed might be aimed at the Auckland Cup (March 9) and/or the Sydney Cup (April 23).

"We might have a look at the AJC Derby [April 9] with Lion Tamer, but we haven't yet discussed it with the owners."