By BARRY STREET
If Sheila Laxon were not so busy with her strong team of gallopers on the banks of Lake Karapiro, she would probably join the fast-growing Mark Du Plessis fan club.
Laxon was yesterday "rapt" with the performance of her giant stayer Desert Rain in the Murray East Tours and Travel 2400m at Te Rapa on Saturday and equally tickled pink by the way the horse went to the line for Du Plessis.
Desert Rain missed out winning by a neck. But that did not mean a hoot to Laxon.
What she most wanted to see on the eve of the Wellington Cup carnival, which begins at Trentham next Saturday week, was a fit horse running on strongly and taking an age to pull up.
Desert Rain did exactly that after bungling the start and settling in the rear. Normally he races much handier.
Du Plessis, formerly the No 1 rider of Zimbabwe but now a Kiwi convert with a quick century of wins to his credit in this country, was having his first ride on the horse.
"You have to hand it to Mark," Laxon said. "He let the horse lob along and do his own thing, which he needs, and then coaxed him into a big finish which saw them end up halfway down the back straight.
"Mark has a wonderful knack. Horses like to run for him. He had Desert Rain, who can have a mind of his own, finding the line on Saturday like no other time in his career."
Du Plessis indicated he would be happy to ride the horse again, Laxon said, in either the Trentham Stakes, a weight-for-age 2400m, next Saturday week or the Wellington Cup Trial, an open-class 2200m, the following Monday.
Desert Rain handsomely won the Wellington Cup Trial a year ago only to flop as favourite for an Australian rider, Chris Munce, in the 2000 Wellington Cup.
More recently he failed to fire on rain-affected tracks during an Australian spring campaign, improved a good deal for equal third in the Waikato Cup in mid-December and then weakened out to 15th for Grant Cooksley in the Auckland Cup on New Year's Day.
Laxon is yet to satisfy herself that Desert Rain can stay 3200m. After all, almost all his best form has been at 2200-2400m.
Then again, the horse was a victim of circumstances in the 2000 Wellington Cup and again in the 2001 Auckland Cup, she said yesterday.
"In last year's Wellington Cup he copped an early check, which didn't do him any good because after that it seemed he wanted to do one thing while Chris Munce wanted to do something else.
"They ended up travelling too keenly and the horse spitting the dummy.
"In the Auckland Cup the track was cutting out and right against him. He's not built to handle anything shifty or turning."
A decision on whether Desert Rain will try 3200m yet again in the Lion Brown Wellington Cup on January 27 will depend on how much power he musters and how much gas remains in his tank at the end of his next race.
Three stablemates will accompany him to Trentham. They are Forlorna, who again won stylishly for Laxon at Te Rapa on Saturday, recent Ellerslie winner Andrella and capable 3-year-old filly Tapildo.
The first four placegetters in Saturday's main race at Te Rapa - Big Hustler, Desert Rain, Soldier Blue and Te Akau Jack - are all Wellington Cup contenders.
Big Hustler confirmed that 2400m or beyond on left-handed tracks were his forte after winning the New Zealand St Leger at Trentham last autumn and finishing runner-up to Starina in a premier-quality 2400m at the Waikato Cup carnival last month.
Part-owner and trainer Ray Peake would have been delighted yesterday at Big Hustler's being given a 1kg Wellington Cup re-handicap, taking the horse's weight to 51kg with more chance of a start.
Only last week the wheelchair-ridden Peake decided he should pay a $3375 late Wellington Cup entry fee for what turned out a dubious equal-31st starting position.
Before the re-handicap was announced Peake thought that Big Hustler would almost certainly have to try for first, second or third in the Trentham Stakes to escape a cup ballot.
Cambridge trainer Royce Dowling has another Wellington Cup lead-up race in mind for Soldier Blue - the Marton Cup, a listed 2200m, at Awapuni next Saturday.
Racing: Jockey makes his mark with Desert Rain
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