KEY POINTS:
The Sir Slick team had a sobering moment when the horse injured himself in a freakish incident one hour after winning Saturday's $150,000 Whakanui Stud International Stakes at Te Rapa.
The magical half-million-dollar winner went into a panic when he got his tail caught under a hardened plastic water pipe running the length of his Te Rapa tie-up stall.
He lashed out and pulled the plate off his off-side hind leg and bruised his heel when he kept kicking the concrete wall with his bare foot.
The leg was extremely sore when Sir Slick was floated home, but trainer Graeme Nicholson said things were looking a lot better yesterday.
"He's resting the leg a lot, but he's walking on it okay. It's a lot better than it was last night [Saturday]."
Nicholson has even bigger things to occupy his mind - he knows Sir Slick's racing days in New Zealand are limited.
But he's nervous about campaigning the remarkable galloper overseas.
That wasn't his first reaction immediately after Sir Slick once again broke hearts in Saturday's group one race. That was tears.
No one begrudged the ex-dairy farmer his emotion - he's copped his share of comments about being a battling fringe horse trainer and Sir Slick has batted every one of them to the fence for six.
No one argued with this one.
Not even Noel Harris on runner-up and favourite Sharvasti.
At the 220m mark Harris was sitting quietly on Sharvasti one length off Sir Slick and waiting to pounce.
Almost as if Sir Slick knew, a split second before Harris was about to launch Sharvasti the leader kicked forward by yet another length and Harris instantly knew he was beaten and rode only for second money from that point.
Nicholson has options like the US$1.8 million ($2.6 million) Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in Hong Kong in April and the US$1.89 million Singapore Cup on May 20, both events being 2000m weight-for-age races operating on an invitational all-expenses-paid basis.
"He'll get too much weight in handicaps here now, won't he?" said Nicholson.
"I'm a bit nervous about taking him anywhere else though, I'd really only be a little fish in a big pond and I might get gobbled up."
Nicholson has a passport only because he regularly travels to the United States to see his son Stephen, who manages the newly built US$400 million thoroughbred farm Adina Springs in Kentucky.
Nicholson has not campaigned a horse outside New Zealand and sees Hong Kong and Singapore as a giant leap.
Whether or not Darci Brahma runs in the $150,000 Otaki Maori WFA next start, Sir Slick will have a change of rider with Bruce Herd in the saddle for his attempt to put three group one victories together.
Herd has won several races on Sir Slick and Nicholson promised him the ride whenever the horse races in the central districts, with Saturday's winning rider Opie Bosson having the first refusal in his home northern area.
If you got top odds backing Kingsinga early for the $700,000 SkyCity Auckland Cup, you were smiling after he finished an impressive third.
