KEY POINTS:
A horse diagnosed with heart strain two months ago could be one to upset the favourites in the $250,000 Thorndon Mile today.
Shariat's On Fire, from stable of Mike and Paul Moroney, goes into the group one 1600m handicap with an excellent record.
From nine starts the four-year-old gelding by Keeper has only twice finished further back than second. He has five wins and two seconds.
Shariat's On Fire was being readied for the $200,000 Counties Cup at Ellerslie in November when mild heart strain was diagnosed.
A two-week course of a human heart drug was prescribed for Shariat's On Fire and Moroney said there had since been no sign of the problem.
"He had a completely clear cardiograph two weeks later," Moroney said. "He has been cardiographed twice since and he is 100 per cent clear."
With two weeks on the sidelines, it was initially thought it would be best to give Shariat's On Fire a break from racing.
But the horse thrived over the two weeks, Moroney said.
"We had planned on turning him out. But he just absolutely thrived and piled on that much weight in the two weeks he was idle."
Earlier, he had won successive open class races over 2040m and 1600m at Hastings and Ellerslie respectively and he resumed racing with a slashing second in a 1400m open handicap at Tauranga on January 2. He was one of the few runners to come from the back that day, Moroney said
"His preparatory run at Tauranga was huge. He defied the bias that day by coming from the back.
"He stormed down the outside and he's improved from that race. He's not a flash trackworker but for him his work has been first rate."
Shariat's On Fire has won three of five starts at 1600m but Moroney expects him to shine as a stayer.
But he said an outside barrier of 14 today did not help his prospects.
"He's going to have the task in front of him because he won't have a lot of gate speed at a mile.
"But he's a very, very talented horse who will be getting home hard. We rate him right up there as a definite group one horse."
Sir Slick, with topweight of 60.5kg, was last night the clear $3.60 favourite for the Thorndon but Shariat's On Fire, a $12 chance, has the advantage of being well down in the weights at 53kg - a 7.5kg advantage.
"He'll probably need all of it but he's a horse with a big, big future," Moroney said.
- NZPA
