More Than Sacred (left) drops to a comfortable 52.5kg for today's Wellington Cup. Photo / Dean Purcell
More Than Sacred loves it when the going gets tough.
We saw that when she out-toughed them in the Oaks at Trentham last autumn.
The rugged Cambridge mare can add today's $200,000 Platinum Homes Wellington Cup to the scoreboard.
She is magnificently placed. She carried 55.5kg in the City Of Auckland Cup when fourth to Mosquito and drops to a comfortable 52.5kg this time.
More importantly, Trentham is a greater test of staying ability than Ellerslie's undulating surface and that suits More Than Sacred just fine. She looks a great bet.
Annie Higgins has not gone a bad race lately and she drops from 58kg in the City Of Auckland Cup to 54.4kg, a much better weight for a mare. She has been getting home strongly late in her races and this track suits her also. Military Move and Guns At Five are obvious choices for multiple bets.
Sacred Star (No9, R7) and Zurella (No7) are almost joint favourites for the $200,000 Harcourts Thorndon Mile and it's difficult to separate them. Sacred Star was left parked wide in Ellerslie's Rich Hill Mile and did extremely well to finish fourth to stablemate Chintz. He put together an impressive winning treble before that and looks ideally placed here. Zurella is much better left-handed and you can probably forget her defeat in the sprint-home Zabeel Classic. The 53.5kg for her looks attractive. Difficult to sum up the form of Survived (No1) except for saying like Zurella, he didn't appreciate the sit-sprint tempo of the Zabeel. He, Brave Centaur (No2) and Jubilate (No8) should fill most of the slots for the multiples.
The Wellington Cup is the middle leg of the $1 million Triple Trio.
The opening leg, Race 8, is tight. On her best form Neena Rock (No8) would win this. She had a strange campaign in the spring. She came back with a driving finish into a close second at Awapuni on Boxing Day. She doesn't have to improve much to win this. Mangaroa Mini (No9) is a perpetual placegetter and if Matt Cameron can get her the right run she will be right in it. Victoria Gatu claims 3kg off Ruready (No2) and that will be crucial to his chances. The only issue will be his wide barrier.
The last leg, Race 9, looks extremely open. The Bachelor (No15) has struck his best form and comes into this with a nice bit of freshness on his side. He has the right barrier to get the run of the race.
Gwynethanne (No13) deserves a win after two fabulous and close seconds and don't drop Julinsky Prince (No5) for his surprise failure at Taupo. Locket (No11) and Brad Thorn (No8) are musts.
More Than Sacred in the Cup looks the bet, not only of the TT and the Quaddie, but of the day.
Tomorrow at Ellerslie, Equanimity (No10) is a nice way to start the programme. She is probably the most impressive maiden winner in months and has the No 1 barrier draw for James McDonald to work from.
Spellbinder (No13, R3) is another that jumps from the rails barrier in her race. She would have been favourite anyway, but that provides her with a bit of comfort.
Rapid Gain may be a horse with a trick or two but he's got a serious side as he showed with another stylish win at Rotorua yesterday.
"He's got a quirky nature and he takes a bit of keeping happy," said Tom Hazlett, stable representative for trainer Jason Bridgman.
"It was a good solid effort and he got a bit further back than we anticipated and he hit the line well," Hazlett said
The winner of two races at Arawa Park and three of his seven career starts, Rapid Gain is a son of Flying Spur, who also sired yesterday's 2-year-old winner and group two J Swap Contractors Matamata Breeders' Stakes prospect Thrill.
- Additional reporting NZ Racing Desk
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