Racing: Questions answered for trainer

Golden Harvest would have been a certainty with 3kg off his 58.5kg at Te Rapa on Saturday.

Remarkably, trainer and part owner Mike Breslin didn't want the horse to be a good thing.

He wanted an answer to a question.

Breslin wanted to know how far behind this time last year Golden Harvest is right now.

The answer, according to Breslin, is a length or two and closing.

"A year ago he would have beaten those horses by four or five lengths," he said after Golden Harvest beat Marty Boy by half a length in the sprint.

"This day last year he was racing against some of the best of Australia's sprinters in Adelaide and performed well."

Golden Harvest's problems began when he contracted a virus on the trip.

"We only did the trip with him to make him grow up.

"We didn't know he had a virus and he had two runs with it and it buggered him for a while.

"I wanted him to run with 58.5kg to see how far behind his best he is. We're not there yet, but we're getting there.

"We're running out of season with him. We wanted to run him in the Railway this summer, but it'll have to be in the next Railway."