Racing: Scorching Cup trial follows big injury scare

Tauranga trainer Del Roberts is not so stressed about losing his Wellington Cup jockey - he is relieved he still has a horse fit for next Saturday's race.

About the time Trebla's regular rider Leith Innes was earning a three-week holiday for allowing Wahid to wander into Abbey Drive's line in the Wellington Stakes, Roberts was dealing with a heart-stopping moment of his own.

Roberts unloaded his New Zealand Cup winner from the truck just two hours before the Trentham Stakes to find blood pouring from the heel of his near foreleg.

"He gave us quite a scare. It was touch and go there for a while over whether he'd start," said Roberts, who desperately needed the Trentham Stakes run to top off Trebla's Wellington Cup preparation.

"He pulled a shoe off on the trip down from Otaki and must have driven the back nail into his heel.

"He didn't even want to put it on the ground when I went to get him off the truck."

After a nervous wait and quick patch-up, however, Trebla produced a Trentham Stakes run that thrilled Roberts and TAB bookies who quickly tightened him into a $7 fixed odds second favourite.

Innes and Trebla ducked through on the fence inside the final 100m with what looked to be a winning run before his condition gave out in the last few bounds, allowing Envoy to fight back to win by a nose.

"He just blew out the last bit. I couldn't have asked for a better Cup trial," said Roberts.

"I'm rapt with the horse. He's done a bit of work for the Cup, but there just hasn't been a lot of racing around to give him the right sort of build-up."

Roberts is also thrilled with the way Trebla has come through Saturday's final lead-up, just his second race since his neck victory over Northern Beau at Riccarton in November.

The 5-year-old polished his feed-bin at Howie Mathews Otaki stable yesterday and a poultice on his pricked foot should fight off any chance of infection from Saturday's foot scare.

As for a replacement for Innes, Roberts isn't going to rush a final call before the riders' declaration deadline on Wednesday.

"I'm talking to a few and will see what happens, and I'll also be talking to Leith and getting his advice," said Roberts. "He knows the horse and has ridden him so well."

Envoy's trainer Ken Kelso is also pleased with the way the Cup's new $5 fixed-odds favourite has shaken off the weekend's final lead-up.

Still a run off 3200m peak fitness on Saturday, the Adelaide Cup runner-up showed a lot of courage to bulldog his way through cramped quarters.

"I thought he'd run second from where I was sitting in the stand," said Kelso. "That was a gutsy win, and he's taken improvement out of it. Grant [Cooksley] said he didn't have a particularly hard run."

Envoy carries 57.5kg in the Wellington Cup. Trebla is on 56.5kg and meets Envoy 1kg better off than in the Trentham Stakes but Kelso believes the handicapper has got it right.

"With a 53kg minimum the 57.5kg is not as bad as it sounds," he said."We just have to hope now that he draws all right and everything goes right."

Meanwhile, Cambridge trainer Frank Ritchie believes he has the winning polish on Gorgeous George for his final tune-up at Trentham today.

The Turtle Island 5-year-old was the surprise 3200m package of last year's carnival after coming out of the lower grades to push 2005 winner Zabeat to a nose.

Gorgeous George hasn't won a race since, but Ritchie is going into the final week's build-up even more confident.

"The Cup last year was almost an after-thought but this time he's had his preparation aimed at this race all along," said Ritchie. "He's ready to run 3200m already. You can see that in his last two races, he lacks the acceleration and that's partly why he leads."

Cup rival Arreviderci, who beat Gorgeous George in the corresponding Trentham race last year, should be his toughest rival today.

The cup field will be drawn on Wednesday.