KEY POINTS:
Two months ago John Wheeler won the $100,000 Great Northern Steeplechase with Real Tonic for mysterious Irish millionaire Eamon Cleary.
This afternoon at Riccarton, Wheeler produces the hot favourite Pentathon in the $200,000 Christchurch Casino New Zealand Cup, and Eamon is the owner of his main rival, Shamrock Star.
"I guess that's the way horse racing is," said Wheeler as he prepared for a leisure harness day out at Addington yesterday.
Around the same time as Pentathon put his stamp on favouritism for the New Zealand Cup by winning at Riccarton last Saturday, the horse's part-owner with Wheeler, Aucklander Rod Baulcomb, was winning at Te Rapa with the Roger James-trained Ritzy Lady.
Ritzy Lady, by Zabeel, is in the $70,000 Platinum Homes Tauranga Stakes at Rotorua this afternoon so Baulcomb is shooting for a notable double double.
Wheeler, ever the joker, couldn't resist a humorous crack at his owner. "Yeah, Rod sends all his Zabeels to Roger to train and I have to make do with the hacks."
Wheeler considers Pentathon a Melbourne Cup hope for next year. If he's right that quote above may come back to bite him, but then for A$5 million-plus ($5.7 million) he'll be happy with that.
Most horses by Pentire prefer good footing, but Wheeler says he is not concerned about the going for Pentathon today. He says the horse will cope, wt or fine.
What he might be worried about is getting the right sort of run.
If you'd planned each of the races, Pentathon could not have received a better passage in each of his three winning performances lately.
Most trainers prefer to save their luck for these big races - to punt on four perfect passages in a row is playing with the odds and would always be a worry. "If Noel [Harris] rides him like he did last week, I think he'll win," said Wheeler.
Last week Pentathon had only a neck to spare from another main rival today in Coup Triumphal, but he always looked to be comfortably holding the other horse.
"He only does what he has to," says Wheeler.
Which is perfect as a lead-up to a race like this - an effort which tightens a horse without exhausting it.
Because of their being no penalty for winning last week, the weight differential between Pentathon and Coup Triumphal, 57kg to 53.5kg, remains the same.
But there is a slight advantage towards Coup Triumphal because it is considerably more difficult to successfully carry 57kg over 3200m than it is over last week's trip of 2500m.
Pentathon will have to be good to win with 57kg, but in his favour is that there is only a 4kg spread in the handicap from his weight to the bottom-weighted runners.
Shamrock Star is lightly raced - six wins from 13 starts - and has had a lighter preparation for 3200m than would suit most horses. However, trainer Mark Oulaghan is a superb conditioner and says his only concern is whether the horse is a natural 3200m runner.
"You'd say the way he races keenly that he wouldn't see it out, but when Bruce Herd won on him after leading last start he said the horse didn't have to lead," said Oulaghan.
"Bruce said that soon after the start he momentarily took hold of the horse and he started to come back underneath him.
"He still went forward, but said the horse would have been just as comfortable if he hadn't."
Oulaghan is keeping an eye on the suspect weather in Christchurch, but isn't too concerned.
"I don't think he'd be worried if it was a little bit affected, but if it cut up I don't think he'd like it.
"It would probably take a fair bit of rain to make a real difference."
Local mare Dimondsontheinside is the improver and if the track was significantly affected by rain then Miles would come into the picture.
