By MIKE DILLON
Track conditions at Tauranga this morning will decide for trainer Ross Taylor whether highly promising young galloper Wills races this week or next season.
Taylor has Wills down for only his second career run in the Marks Ewen and Associates 1300m on his home track at Tauranga this afternoon, but is not prepared to risk him on anything worse than easy footing.
His alternative is a C1 race at Trentham on Saturday but if Wellington looked like getting the rain which is forecast, he would spell Wills until the spring without racing again.
Wills provided another example of what a great loss his sire Blues Traveller was when he made a stunning winning debut at Matamata on April 11, running a swift 1.10.68 1200m after leading.
Asked yesterday how good he thought Wills might be, Taylor said: "Very."
But he will not run the horse simply for the sake of it.
"I'd love to give him another start before turning him out, but there are bigger things to do in the spring to worry about sending him around on a wet track."
Roger James would love to win the Mt Maunganui Engineering Juvenile this afternoon with first starter Cheetah.
Cheetah is raced by the WHOG Syndicate (Woodford House Old Girls), one of the principals of which is Julie Wilding, who was directly responsible for James establishing himself as a trainer in the Waikato.
"Julie was our neighbour in Amberley and when I was working in the bank I used to bring her yearlings up to the sales in the North Island and that's what got me thinking about coming up here and working in racing fulltime," said James.
Cheetah, a filly by Desert Sun, showed immediate promise in the spring, but indicated an aversion to the starting stalls and had to be eased.
She scored a recent runaway trials win and looks capable of threatening today.
Racing: Promising youngster to run only if track good
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