Racing: Oh Boy, he'd love a repeat victory

Joanne Moss isn't sure how Blakes Boy will measure up in trying for a repeat big-race win at Te Rapa tomorrow.

What she does know is that the talented Gisborne-trained jumper is fitter for the $40,000 Dunstan Feeds Waikato Hurdles than when he scored easily last year.

"He's had more racing - last year he'd had just one race going into this, but this year he started racing at Gisborne in February."

You might think that makes him a good bet, but Moss is worried about Rochelle Lockett's horse Praise The Lord, a two-from-two hurdler with immense potential.

"He looks pretty good - he doesn't do much wrong."

Typical of many jumps races these days, there is little scale in the handicap and Blakes Boy is not badly off with 65kg, despite Moss' observation that her horse has to carry topweight.

He won the race last year carrying 62.5kg.

Blakes Boy struck a heavy track in the jumpers' flat at Rotorua last week and Moss is delighted the Te Rapa footing will be an improvement on that.

The surface was 3.7 and slow yesterday.

Although rain is extremely unlikely, the track may not come back significantly, but should offer perfect footing for jumpers.

"I know he's won in heavy tracks, but he doesn't really like it. There are heavy tracks and heavy tracks."

The TAB bookies bench was taking no chances with Praise The Lord, yesterday installing him the $3 favourite.

That price was created by head bookie Paul Lally's assessment of the race rather than the weight of money for Praise The Lord.

"I like him," said Lally. "I think he's a horse coming through with a future."

Praise The Lord won the second of his two hurdle races at his last start at Wanganui on May 11, beating a field that was lengths below this line-up. He stood off a fence with about 600m to run, but showed clever footwork to remain on his feet.

The victory gave Lockett a notable owning, training, riding combination.

Praise The Lord showed he has at least as much galloping ability as any he faces tomorrow when he scored a stunning 2000m victory at Woodville fresh from a spell two starts back.

A start for No Hero's stablemate Peron was being left until the results of a blood test this morning.

"He felt a bit flat for a couple of days and a blood off him showed his white cell count to be down a bit," said trainer Paul Nelson.

Nelson's wife Carol said Peron felt a lot brighter when worked off the lead yesterday morning but the Nelsons needed the improvement confirmed by a second blood test before a Te Rapa start was confirmed.