Racing: Miss Potential Brisbane-bound

Poor weather has upset Bill Borrie's plans for Miss Potential.

Bill Borrie has a problem.

The last time he asked Miss Potential to race on a heavy track - at Ellerslie last winter - the million-dollar earner said, No.

She refused to gallop, tailed off and ran 200m last.

Borrie can't risk the same thing happening with his comeback-from-retirement mare in today's $40,000 Rotorua Stakes, a race that was scheduled to springboard Miss Potential into a Queensland winter carnival campaign and the A$640,000 ($786,000) Doomben 10,000.

Indications were late yesterday that Miss Potential would not run because of a heavy track at Rotorua and would be on the flight to Brisbane on Tuesday.

"My information is that it has been raining today, the track is heavy and that is definitely not going to suit her," said Borrie.

"If it stopped raining and they got a whole lot of wind overnight and the track started drying we might look at a start in the morning, but at this stage that doesn't look likely.

Borrie had no problems with running Miss Potential on a track rated slow.

"She couldn't, or wouldn't, cope with the rough track at the Cambridge trial last week, but the track was soft when we worked her at Paeroa yesterday [Thursday] morning and she was fine with that."

If Miss Potential is forced to miss racing today, Borrie said he was not as worried about the upset to her Australian racing programme.

It looks less than ideal that Miss Potential will fly across on Tuesday, run in the 1200m A$125,000 Darley Sprint next Saturday then back up in the Doomben 10,000 the following week.

"I'm not worried about that at all. She's done it before and she actually shows that she races better when she backs up. She seems to react much better," the trainer said.

Regular rider Reese Jones will be aboard in both Australian races.

You might be mistaken if you think the Paeroa track for tomorrow's meeting will be bottomlessly heavy, which from all reports Thames was for the barrier trials on Thursday.

Borrie gave a huge plug for the condition of the Paeroa course proper and for its new permanent manager Brett Green.

Green had been assistant manager for three years before taking over in October.

"The drains have been cleared and suddenly Paeroa does not hold the water like it used to," said Borrie.

Green holds a permit to train licence, spent nine years working in the David Hayes stable in Melbourne then did a year with the Ingham operation in Sydney before returning to New Zealand.

"The water coming off the hill is no longer a factor," said Green yesterday.

"The track overall is in pretty good condition, about 4.2 I'd say.

"They galloped on it this morning and they got into it only by about five centimetres.

"What happens from here depends very much on the weather."

In Australia, Kajema and Gee I Jane are the only two New Zealand runners at Doomben's big meeting at Brisbane today.

The number one barrier draw is probably not ideal for a long-striding mare like Gee I Jane in the A$300,000 BTC Cup.

But she will be ridden by Scott Seamer who knows the Cambridge mare well, having been in the saddle when she won the group one Telegraph Handicap at Trentham in Janurary.

New Zealand sprinters do not have an outstanding record against the Australians but this field does not include the country's top-level sprinters.

The Roger James' stayer Kajema has 56kg topweight in the 2020m A$100,000 Chairmans Handicap and will be ridden by Danny Beasley.