KEY POINTS:
Trainer Karen Zimmerman has a warning for the opposition in tomorrow's $65,000 Wealleans Matamata Cup - Bonjour has improved since his dashing $100,000 Merial Metric Mile victory.
But then he probably needs to.
Bonjour has gone from 55kg to 58kg topweight for that win and the 4kg to
5kg he has to concede to some smart, emerging horses will not be easy.
But Zimmerman is expecting a big run.
"He pulled up remarkably well from the Awapuni race and his coat is even better since that race," she said.
The prospect of a slow track does not faze the Otaki trainer.
"He's worked well all week on an 'off' track. That won't be an issue, he's won on that type of ground before."
Zimmerman had thought of stepping Bonjour up to weight-for-age class next start, with the obvious choice the Captain Cook Stakes at Trentham.
But the prospect of now meeting Seachange in that race does not excite her.
"I thought that might be a winnable race, but it's going to be a heck of a lot stronger than we first imagined.
"There's the Couplands Mile at Riccarton, but he's crept up in the weights."
Rival trainer Margaret Falconer is hoping her luck changes - starting with fine weather today and tomorrow.
Falconer has had more frustration than anyone deserves with Alonzo, the horse she part owns with uncle Doug Goslin and Tony Madden.
The trio turned down massive money for Alonzo as a 3-year-old because Doug Goslin was keen to watch the horse race and since then the big bloke has had his career put on hold - first by knee chips, then by a tendon in a hind leg last November.
"It's nearly two years since he won a race," said Falconer yesterday.
But the Cambridge trainer and her partners saw what they were looking for when Alonzo stormed home from the back for a fast-closing fourth over an unsuitable 1200m at Ellerslie two weeks ago in his first race start since injuring the tendon at Riccarton.
"You start to worry about them when they've had as many setbacks as he's had," she said.
"It was nice to see a run at Ellerslie that suggested he was going to come back to it."
Alonzo steps up to a much more suitable 1600m tomorrow and is understandably fitter for the Ellerslie run, but Falconer is worried about the prospect of a slow track.
"Dead is about the worst he can handle it.
"If it didn't rain again the Matamata track could come back into the dead zone, but if there was rain on the day the surface will cut up quickly.
"I don't think we'll run if the track gets too bad."
The value runner could be The Sportsman, who won exceptionally well at Ellerslie two starts back then failed when well backed at Pukekohe.
Cadillac is a relative newcomer to this grade, but has always looked he goods.
He is best on decent footing and his chances will depend greatly on the weather.
