Addictive Habit, perfectly drawn against the rails, is rated at $11 and Ponderosa Miss is on $14.
Meanwhile, for Saturday's other northern meeting at Avondale leading trainers are angry but the Avondale Jockey Club is defending its stance in reducing the four 1600m races to 1400m.
Trainers are particularly upset at being given only 24 hours' notice from Tuesday's nomination time for the listed stakes race, the $50,000 Westbury Stud Karaka Classic, the issue being caused by the problematic 1600m starting chute. "When you are preparing horses for distance races, you need more than 24 hours notice that a listed race is being reduced from 1600m to 1400m," said Ruakaka trainer Donna Logan.
Avondale president Allan Boyle said the club did everything it could to retain the troublesome 1600m chute. "Yes, we have had problems with the chute, but that initial problem was close to the end of the chute near the 1400m starting point. It wasn't until Monday that staff identified a spongy spot much closer to the actual 1600m starting point.
"The stipendiary stewards had been involved in the work we did in the original problem spot and we had been very confident we could have used the chute for Saturday's races, but the other spot was not going to be able to be rectified in time."
The water issue has developed since the council built a cycle track adjacent to the chute, but there is no evidence yet that that has been the cause of the issue.
"It's mystifying because we've done nothing different with that piece of ground up the chute," says Boyle.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing's general manager of racing Matthew Hall confirmed the problem was drawn to his attention only on Monday and said every possible solution was investigated.
"We even looked at relocating the entire meeting, but having just completed the costings of shifting next week's Matamata meeting to Tauranga, it was going to be too inconvenient for everybody if we shifted two meetings in one week.
"We looked at possibly altering the 1600m starting point to another spot on the course proper, but in the end we had to make the decision to reduce the four 1600m races to 1400m. We are totally empathetic with everyone who has horses in those races."
"You feel so helpless," says trainer Rudy Liefting. "I was setting a horse for the Westbury Stud Classic because it was 1600m. It might be possible to stretch a 1200m horse out to 1400m, but it's a lot more difficult to reprogramme a 1600m type back to 1400m."
Logan says she's glad she doesn't have a horse in the 2040m Livamol Classic at Hastings. "If you were relying on the 1600m of the Westbury Classic to get your horse ready for that, you'd be in bad trouble."
The field for the Windsor Park Plate is:
R8 4.20: Windsor Park Plate, $200,000, WFA, 1600m.- Spin Doctor (12), Kawi (11), Shuka (5), Addictive Habit (1) 59, Julinsky Prince (8), Puccini (2), Nashville (4), Farm Boy (15), Weregoingtogetcha (14), Delago's Secret (9) 59; Turn Me Loose (6) 58.5; Soriano (10), Pondarosa Miss (7), Miss Three Stars (3) 57. Emg: Celebrity Miss (13) 57.
