CHRISTCHURCH - If you are talking up The Red Express for the Winter Cup today and thinking of putting your money where the mouth is, you are in good company.
Trainer Grant Laursen has been nibbling away at the Riccarton phenomenon ever since he opened at 30-to-one in the fixed odds, and he'll be the one with the big grin after he's sprung the trap on the bookmakers today.
"Originally I wasn't going to run him in the race. Then he won so easily here in June with 61kg I wavered," Laursen said.
"When they opened him at those odds I had to be in. I'm up for quite a bit one way and another if he can pull it off."
The Red Express is from Foxton, but from 17 starts at Riccarton he has won eight and run second in five. One of his worst misses was in the 1600m Challenge Stakes at Easter under 58kg but Laursen is ready to excuse that.
"He was feeling the effects from winning the Great Easter five days before when second-up.
"I don't think a good draw helped him when he had the edge off. But he's a different horse now.
"Noel Harris got off him at New Plymouth and suggested we get someone to start polishing the cup."
Winning with 58.5kg, even under the new weight regime, will not be easy. But even the chestnut's toughest rivals reckon him to be the one to beat.
There's the enigmatic Jolly Rodger, and boom apprentice Michael Walker, who rode his first stakes winner at Riccarton.
There's Fly Away Home, a rejuvenated Diaga, the stylish Say Magic, the consistent Clarify and the unpredictable Mann A Rook are all waiting in the wings.
And then there's Nothing Lika Tango, with trainer Royce Dowling, who is confident the lightly-tried four-year-old can win with 51kg.
"I've set him for the race. He's not that experienced but that isn't a real worry. He's wanting 1600m," Dowling said.
"I'd like them to go hard early and spread out from the draw. But I'm very happy with the horse and this is a race I think he can win."
Fly Away Home and the unpredictable Little Wizard both have the skills to win, and southerner Mann A Rook could have benefited from another example of sportsmanship from Royce Dowling.
He treated Nothing Lika Tango's big race rival with some equine therapy just before he galloped yesterday. Trainer Val Christophers felt it had a beneficial effect and that the horse soon seemed more relaxed.
- NZPA
Racing: Laursen will be chuffed
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