Racing: Kiwi star can't take the heat

Auckland Reactor may be given a spell. Photo / Simon Baker

The Kiwi trainer behind Auckland Reactor's disastrous North American campaign says the stallion can turn his form around - but not any time soon.

The one-time pacing hero of New Zealand harness racing finished a pathetic last in a moderate field at Chester yesterday, the low point of a three-race United States campaign which has seen Auckland Reactor's value plummet.

The Auckland Cup winner was sent to the United States this year to tackle their best races and set himself up for a dual-hemisphere stud career.

But after an average first start and two poor performances since he would barely attract a commercial broodmare at stud in North America and he looks far better placed returning home for races like the Miracle Mile and Interdominions next season.

Yesterday, he finished last in a weak field and paced 1:52, which by North American standards is embarrassingly slow.

But Kelvin Harrison, the former Methven boy who is a respected trainer in New Jersey, says Auckland Reactor's problem can be summed up in one word.

"Acclimatisation," Harrison told the Herald yesterday.

"He simply hasn't learned to handle the heat over here.

"It was 90 [degrees Fahrenheit, 32C] here today but also very humid and it just fries him.

"When it gets a bit colder, and it was a few days earlier this week, he works like the great horse he is.

"But when it gets hot he is just terrible. Today, he was truly awful and it can only be the weather.

"I have trained a lot of good horses and he is by far and away the best of them but he is not handling the weather at all."

That is hardly the news the syndicate, which paid $3.6 million for Auckland Reactor two years ago, wants heading into the North American summer.

Already he is performing 60m below his best and if hot weather is the problem the next three months, when the real money and stud-career building races are up for grabs, are a write-off.

"I think we can fix him but he is going to need cooler weather, so if he was my horse I'd put him away now, give him an easier time and aim for the Breeders Crown."

That is in November and if heat is the problem it looks the only realistic major North American target for Auckland Reactor but that would mean taking on the elite with virtually no top-level racing under his belt in the last year.

While nobody associated with Auckland Reactor is going to admit it now, the most financially viable long-term option is to return him to New Zealand where he could still have a commercial stud career if he was able to win a Miracle Mile, Interdominion or the less likely option of a New Zealand Cup.

But that would mean returning home sooner, rather than later.

There is one positive for Auckland Reactor. If he does come home he won't have to worry about it being too hot in Canterbury ... for a long time yet.

* The Fiery Ginga has ended his 3-year-old campaign against the trotters with seven wins and five placings in 18 starts for $51,411 in stakes.

Clark announced his decision after The Fiery Ginga finished second to the one-win trotter Winfield Glow in a trial at Forbury Park yesterday. The Fiery Ginga started from 20m over 2200m, trailed in third slot and ran pacemaker Winfield Glow to a head in slushy conditions.

"He just didn't fire so he can go out for three months," Alan Clark, the East Taieri trainer and owner of The Fiery Ginga said.

He set national records for his age at Addington (2:25.6 for 1950m) and Ascot Park (3:30.6 for 2700m). A notable placing for the gelding was third to Shezoneoftheboyz and Kahdon in the NZ Trotting Derby.

- Additional reporting Tayler Strong