Racing: Mission looks impossible

On paper it may seem like mission impossible for Warmark at Thames tomorrow.

A six-year-old gelding with a duck-egg formline against dual group winning filly Clean Sweep at the top of her game.

But his Te Aroha trainer Chris Smith prefers to look beyond the horse's recent penchant for finishing a distant and lonely last.

Way beyond, in fact, back to this race last year when Warmark burned off Aussie Railway hopeful Dont Tell Tom to win in track record time.

"I have no explanation for his last few starts but obviously there was something troubling him," said Smith.

"I've backed off him and given him a complete break on the farm for a month. His work has been good lately so hopefully we will see some improvement at Thames." Warmark went into this race last year with a similar freshener after pulling up sore in the Concorde.

At his peak, Smith rates the Masterclass speedster on a par with the very best sprinters in New Zealand.

"He stretched Sedecrem to half a length over 1400m at Avondale one day, breaking 1.22s in the process.

"He is not far off the best but the way he races you can't afford to have anything go wrong against the guns."

Lyndsey Hoffman will once again have a lead-at-all-cost approach to tomorrow's comeback in the Haagen Lager Sprint.

Even if Warmark gets the stitch in the straight, Smith knows from experience that it would be foolish for anyone to take his horse on from the gates.

Dont Tell Tom tried last year and a lot of people have made that mistake.

Clean Sweep will be at microscopic odds to make up for the disappointment of getting stuck on the ballot in the Railway Handicap.

Stable spokesman Paul Moroney said Clean Sweep was to go to Woodville to push her claims for a Telegraph Handicap start later this month.

But the club canned the open sprint because it didn't have enough entries.

"That's put us on the back foot a bit but punters should be warned, if it's wet she won't run at Thames," said Moroney.

"We'll just go straight to Trentham and hope the Wellington Racing Club has more brains than Auckland."