Racing: Horror flight into Christchurch for Cup horses

A horror arrival in New Zealand has not dented trainer Lance Justice's confidence with Smoken Up heading into Tuesday's $1 million New Zealand Trotting Cup.

The Victorian stayer and Queensland rivals Washakie and Be Good Johnny endured a shocking 10-minute spell of turbulence when arriving in Christchurch on Wednesday.

And while Justice was concerned the day after the travel scare, he says he is now much more confident Smoken Up will be back to his best for Tuesday's Addington classic.

"It was a shocker of an approach to Christchurch," Justice told the Herald.

"The actual flight from Sydney was great but once we got near Christchurch and the winds hit we started to drop 50-100m at a time and it really shook the horses up.

"I have been on a lot of planes and it was quite scary. It was so rough we couldn't move to go back and check on the horses.

"The only good news is John McCarthy [trainer of Be Good Johnny] had passed out asleep.

"He gets a bit nervy flying and had he been awake he would have nearly died.

"Although I'll never know how he slept through it.

"His arms were flying around like he was doing a one-man Mexican wave," he said. Justice said Smoken Up was shaken by the landing and when he jogged him on Thursday morning he thought his Cup plans had been derailed.

"When I worked him I thought we might be in a bit of trouble. But I worked him again this morning [Friday] and he was a lot better, much more like himself.

"I would say the improvement he made in that 24 hours would suggest by Sunday he could be fine and by Tuesday we should have him 110 per cent."

News of the roughhouse flight will not only interest punters because Smoken Up is sure to have great support on Tuesday but also because the TAB are running several special options on the Cup.

One of those is for first Australian-trained horse home, for which Smoken Up is the $2.20 favourite over Karloo Mick at $2.60.

After the slight setback to Smoken Up, Karloo Mick's odds could be good value.

The push for Smoken Up in that option has been matched in the final field market for the Cup, where last night he was the $6 second favourite alongside Changeover and Monkey King.

Kiwi Ingenuity remains the $4.50 favourite but punters hoping for better could get their chance tomorrow morning.

TAB harness bookmaker Steve Richardson will drift two of the favoured runners out significantly for the duration of the one-hour Box Seat Cup Preview special to be screened on Trackside at 11am.