KEY POINTS:
Brisbane jockey Stathi Katsidis could yet continue his association with New Zealand St Leger winner Ritzy Lady.
Katsidis on Saturday rode Ritzy Lady to win the $80,000 New Zealand St Leger for 3- and 4-year-olds at Trentham in Wellington.
The two-time Brisbane jockeys premiership winner returned home yesterday,
but he would be an obvious choice of jockey should Ritzy Lady embark on a Brisbane Cup campaign this winter.
Waikato trainer Roger James said yesterday that the group two A$300,000 ($344,000) Brisbane Cup, which has been reduced in distance from 3200m to 2400m, on June 11 was a distinct possibility.
"I'll just make certain she comes through the run well and look at the options," James said. "But a Brisbane Cup campaign could be an option."
He said there was no need to rush Ritzy Lady to Brisbane but it would be preferable to race her in lead-up races there.
"You only need to go the week before if you had the right preparation here, but I would think there would be better lead-up races over there."
James said he had had doubts about how Ritzy Lady would cope with the 2500m distance of Saturday's race.
"I wondered about her stamina but I knew she was 100 per cent dead right," he said.
Ritzy Lady is typical of the stock of her sire Zabeel in being a slow maturer. James said the 4-year-old mare had her best in front of her.
"She's been a weak filly and a slow-maturing filly. She was always going to be better at 4 and 5.
"I think she's certainly capable of adding to the black type she has already earned."
Black type is a term for races rated of stakes class or better. Saturday's race was a stakes race, as was the group two $125,000 Counties Cup (2100m) in which Ritzy Lady finished second behind Chettak at Ellerslie last November.
Ritzy Lady's win completed a hat-trick of wins for the combination of James and Katsidis.
The latter's only two previous rides for James were aboard 3-year-old filly Shira at Ellerslie this month and sprinter-mile Hasta La Ciao Ciao in Brisbane last year. The winning streak ended in the Oaks.
Ritzy Lady started the second favourite but because of the open nature of the race she paid $8.90 to win.
Katsidis, 28, let her settle well back on the inside in the slow track conditions and came through on the inside in the straight.
Ritzy Lady had reached the front more than 300m from the finish but kept going strongly to the line to score by 1 1/4 lengths.
"If anything, I probably got to the front too soon," Katsidis said.
"Roger said to ride her to ensure she gets the 2500m."
Ritzy Lady has now raced 24 times for six wins, three seconds and two thirds. The winner's purse of $46,875 took her earnings to $122,000.
* It all fell into place for Canterbury galloper Al Farouk.
Connections were starting to question their luck with the horse at the Wellington race track but everything turned for the better when he took out the group-three $70,000 Thompson Handicap (1600m) on Saturday.
Al Farouk had been well beaten in two previous starts at Trentham.
He beat only two home in a 2-year-old race last March and was third-last in the Wellington Cup Trial Handicap in January.
"We have had a few dramas every time we've been up here," said Dawn Williams, who trains Al Farouk in partnership with husband Peter at Riccarton.
"The last time he raced over ground at Trentham [in the Wellington Cup Trial] he had a hood on and he pulled his block off."
The blinkers came off for his next start over 2400m at Wingatui and he finished a useful fifth with a weight of 58kg.
"We took the blinkers off at Dunedin and he settled really well but the weight just got to him."
The Thompson Handicap was Al Farouk's next start but it was not originally on the horse's agenda.
When nominations initially closed for the Thompson last Tuesday, Al Farouk was not among them.
But the Wellington Racing Club extended the nomination deadline by a day because of the small number of entries received.
- NZPA