Racing: Scratched mare targets Thorndon

NZ Herald·

2 Jan, 2018 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Love Affair sits atop the TAB market at $6 for the Thorndon Mile this month. Photo / NZ Racing Desk

How painful Love Affair's shock scratching from the Rich Hill Mile was depends on which one of two very distinct camps you were in.

The long-time favourite was pulled out of the $100,000 group two mile at Ellerslie on Monday after the mid-afternoon downpour saw the track downgraded to a Slow 8.

Usually that would be a brutal disappointment for her connections, jockey and punters but in her particularly unusual case that was about half true.

Trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman still won the race with another of their mares in Coldplay, who is co-owned by Waikato Stud boss Garry Chittick, who also owns Love Affair so for Chittick all it meant was halving the winning stake with long-time friend Gary Wallace.

The scratching of course wouldn't have been quite as much fun for Love Affair's jockey Matthew Cameron, who had to watch on as the Baker-Forsman team, for whom he does so much riding, won two group twos on Monday without him in the saddle.

And as for the punters? Well, that depends which camp you were in.

If you backed Love Affair in the futures markets you did your money cold, if you backed her final field you probably dodged a bullet as those bets were refunded and had she raced she almost certainly wouldn't have won.

"She is a good-actioned mare and had we started her I think it would have been ugly," says Forsman.

"So I am certain scratching her was the right thing to do and she will probably go straight to the Thorndon at Trentham now."

That is on January 20 and Love Affair sits atop the TAB market at $6 alongside Hiflyer but without a lead-up race she could go into the Thorndon having not raced in five weeks. "So she will probably need a trial before then and that could even be at Cambridge next Tuesday.

"But I'm pretty sure we can get her there ready to go a big race and obviously it is a group one so it's an important target."

The group two double for the Baker-Forsman stable on Monday coupled with another two wins at Tauranga yesterday means they have won an incredible 20 races in the last 11 days, effectively ending the race for the national trainers premiership in the minds of the bookies.

They now sit 24 wins clear at the top of the trainer's table and are rated a $1.02 shot to retain the crown they won by 25 wins last season.

Just as importantly to the pair their huge run of holiday period success has brought their strike rate down to a win every 5.8 starts, far more in line with recent seasons after it had been as high as a win every seven starts after a frustrating spring on the unseasonably wet tracks.

They won't have a big team for the Trentham meeting though, which is a week earlier this season.

Avondale Cup winner Zacada is likely to miss the Wellington Cup and be set for the Auckland Cup after a busy December.

Meanwhile, Ellerslie track staff were back at work yesterday trying to revitalise the track after seven meetings in a month and the downpour which damaged it to the point the last race had to be abandoned on Monday.

After a full day of working on the track including rolling it and sewing new grass, the inside rail will move out considerably for the January 14 twilight meeting to ensure the best possible surface for the mammoth Karaka Million fixture on January 27.

That meeting received an overseas boost yesterday when the Chris Waller-trained filly Scream Park was nominated for the now $1 million Karaka 3-Year-Old Classic, a rare New Zealand runner for the former Kiwi trainer since he became the king of Sydney racing.