Katie Lee can prove a handful. Photo / Simon Baker
It sounds impossible, but Katie Lee looked fat at yesterday's Te Awamutu barrier trials.
Which is one of the reasons why she needed to be there.
Debbie and Graeme Rogerson are on one hand delighted to have a filly that can bounce from gut-buster to gut-buster and never fall away
in condition.
But on the other there is a price to pay.
Katie Lee, not unlike a lot of top class fillies and mares, is a right bitch.
It takes three people to get a saddle on her - shades of Sunline.
"Sometimes four, one on her nose," said Debbie Rogerson as she watched Katie Lee walk around the horsebox area yesterday.
As if she knew she was being discussed, Katie Lee twice tried to swing around to take a swipe at another horse as her co-trainer watched her.
If you could bottle that determination and will to dominate all opposition you'd be a billionaire by week's end.
Raceday jockey Opie Bosson made a special trip from the lower North Island to Te Awamutu to ride Katie Lee. The high-class filly galloped with last-start winning stablemate Arlington.
Katie Lee will run in the Desert Gold Stakes and Arlington in the Douro Cup.
Another filly Keep the Peace looked good winning her trial, being ridden to the finish by Jason Waddell.
"I wanted her to have a decent hit-out," said co-trainer Shaune Ritchie, who will present her into the Desert Gold Stakes.
Co-owners Paul Bellingham and former champion jockey Mick Dittman were in New Zealand from overseas and watched the trial.
The weather forecast is staying foremost in the mind of punters heading into the $1 million Telegraph on Saturday.
Rain would destroy the race.
Major sprint races are about speed. Introduce rain to the dynamic and the changes are unrecognisable.
The forecast for Wellington is for rain, easing to showers on Thursday then heavier rain developing again Friday.
That could be a disaster for Trentham.
However, three days of rain in Wellington last weekend meant little rain for Trentham. Long may that continue this weekend.
