Racing: Rosie set for Ruakaka revenge

Photo / Thinkstock

Impressive win at Ellerslie one of the turnarounds of season

Avondale hobby trainer Ron Gussey is banking on Rosie's Revenge's Ruakaka meltdown last month being just a case of her legs going too quick for her brain.

His hopes of resurrecting a bid to win the club's Triple Crown series for 2-year-olds hinge on vastly improved racing manners when she returns there today.

Rosie's Revenge's inglorious debut last at Ruakaka on May 6 cost Gussey and first-time owner Rozanne Corrick any hope of making the field for the first leg of the points series on May 25.

But their chances of snaring a $5000 bonus apiece for the Triple Crown's leading owner and trainer soared again with her impressive next-up win on an Ellerslie bog on June 6.

After the O'Reilly filly's disastrous debut, it was one of the most remarkable turnarounds of the season.

Hampered by a wide alley that day at Ruakaka, she got spat out the back early on, and then took off wide near the turn for rider Danielle Johnson.

Stipes put Gussey on notice that the filly's racing manners would need to vastly improve after finishing 66 lengths adrift of the winner.

For his own peace of mind more than anything, Gussey stepped Corrick's $3000 Karaka buy out at the Ellerslie trials four days later on May 10 and she cornered like a seasoned pro in winning untested by 1.5 lengths over 800m.

"She hasn't been a problem going around a bend since that first run," said Gussey.

"She just took off and lost it. Hopefully there should be something on the outside of us this time to hold us in."

Gussey also isn't fazed by the improved track conditions Rosie's Revenge will strike today.

She recorded one of the slowest 1200m times ever seen at Ellerslie, 1m 26.8s, in winning her last start.

They'll go at least 14 seconds quicker over the same trip in the $10,000 The Librettist Challenge Handicap, the first leg of the $100,000 terminating Pick6.

"I don't think it'll worry her," said Gussey of the faster going. "When she won at the Cambridge trials it was more like a dead 6 and it will be something like a dead 8 at Ruakaka."

Gussey said Rosie's Revenge was an exception to his normal rule of never racing a horse at two.

He prefers to give them more time to develop but the filly is a fast-maturing type who showed strength beyond her years from day one.

"We planned for this series way back when we bought her at Karaka," said Gussey, a real estate agent by day. "The only reason we went to Ellerslie was that we couldn't get a start in the first leg.

"If we run in the first three in this one we'll go back for the final race, otherwise she'll go out for a spell."

The winner today gets 10 points with the $20,000 final on July 16 worth 12.5.

Leg one winner, the Stephen McKee-trained Fieldofdreams - a rival for Rosie's Revenge today - leads the early points race with 10.

But she has a trickier alley to overcome from the 1200m start point than the one she mastered in winning here over 1000m on May 25.

The other highlight today should be watching new premiership record holder James McDonald break the 200 mark for the first time. He is linked with the powerful local stable of Donna and Dean Logan for a stack of winning chances.

Dual acceptor Pure Platinum looks the best of those, particularly if she fronts in leg four of the Pick6, rather than leg three.