Racing: Horseman calls for more 3200m races

Showcause (outer) beats Zabene (centre) and Titch after a dogfight up the Riccarton straight. Photo / Getty Images

Cambridge trainer Frank Ritchie would like to see more 3200m races in this country - and it's not just because his New Zealand Cup winner at Riccarton on Saturday, Showcause, is best suited to the extreme distance.

"I think it's sad to see the two-mile races going," Ritchie said in reference to the NZ Cup and Auckland Cup being the only two group 3200m races left on the racing calendar.

The Wellington Cup was reduced to 2400m nearly three years ago, something Ritchie says is worthy of a rethink. "The motivation in reducing the distance is to get better fields, but I don't think there is evidence to suggest that they do."

The 3200m races attract betting interest because they include a number of horses that can run 2400m well, but there is a question mark whether they will last the 3200m, Ritchie says.

"That helps make it a spectacle, but people will say I'm old and a traditionalist and that's true, too."

Ritchie will now aim Showcause at the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie on March 9, ironically the only 3200m group one race left in a country renowned for breeding stayers.

It is a $1 million race, but the purse is in jeopardy after next year's event, as the deal between the Government and the racing industry for million-dollar races runs out at the end of the season, on July 31.

"Now that he has won the New Zealand Cup we will obviously target the Auckland Cup and try not to overtax him between then and now," Ritchie said.

The group two $100,000 Waikato Gold Cup at Te Rapa on December 11 could be his next target if he recovers well from the Cup.

Ritchie thinks the Melbourne Cup is too classy an affair for Showcause.

"I honestly think the Melbourne Cup is too hard a race for anything that raced yesterday. It's now a true international race," he said yesterday.

An Adelaide or Sydney Cup could be in Showcause's sights, but Ritchie hasn't looked beyond Auckland.

Showcause's dyed-in-the-wool staying ability was noted at Riccarton when he just got up to beat Titch by a long head, with a nose back to Zabene, who led turning for home, and a head back to Roi d'Jeu, trained by Ritchie's son Shaune.

"His problem is a lack of ability to sprint and he took all the straight to get up to win, he got right to the end of two miles and fortunately for us a lot of horses don't get two miles."

There was plenty of significance in the win, the first at 3200m for Ritchie, famed for training the great weight-for-age galloper Bonecrusher.

Showcause is by Giant's Causeway out of Showella, whom Ritchie trained to win six races, including the South Australian Derby, and more than $500,000 in stakemoney. Showella's grand-dam was the mighty Wingatui mare Show Gate.

* The 1000 Guineas train wreck was all behind King's Rose - the filly was a dominant winner in trainer Jason Bridgman's mind.

While there will always be conjecture whether hot favourite We Can Say It Now would have won if her progress was not dramatically halted in the late stages of the group one Riccarton feature on Saturday, Bridgman is in no doubt King's Rose was the worthy winner. "There were a couple of unlucky runners, but we were three or four deep the whole journey and it was a pretty dominant performance," he said yesterday.

Opie Bosson stood up short of the line and King's Rose won comfortably by three-quarters of a length in the $300,000 group one 1600m feature for fillies, he said.

We Can Say It Now finished in fifth place, but there was a rare triple protest after the race, with her jockey Mark du Plessis objecting to third-placed Twilight Savings and second-placed Magic Briar and Leith Innes, on Twilight Savings, protesting against Magic Briar.

At the end of it, Magic Briar was demoted from second to fifth with Twilight Savings promoted to second, Smoulder to third and We Can Say It Now to fourth.

Magic Briar's jockey Hayden Tinsley denied a careless riding charge but he was found guilty and suspended for two weeks, with a $1000 fine.

Du Plessis felt We Can Say It Now would have won without being crowded into the running rail at the 200m mark and Innes felt Twilight Savings would have finished first or second if Magic Briar had not taken her line.

But Tinsley said he had not pushed Twilight Savings in and there was room for three horses on his inside.

Chief stipendiary steward Cameron George argued the interference caused by Tinsley was significant and the day's judicial committee agreed with him.

King's Rose gave Bridgman, 39, his first group one win and his first major victory since taking the training reins at Te Akau Stables at the start of the season, when Mark Walker shifted to Singapore.

"I find it terrifically satisfying to get the monkey off my back early in the piece," Bridgman said.

He was confident of a top performance from King's Rose after she won the Ray Coupland Stakes (1400m) at Ashburton on October 17.

The Redoute's Choice filly had always shown plenty of ability, beating Jimmy Choux in her first race day start, over 1000m, at Otaki last October.

But she did not win again until Ashburton and Bridgman's study of her tapes showed she had been cluttered up between horses in her races.

- NZPA