Racing: TAB feels squeeze with bookies backing Sky Major

No 12 Sky Major. Photo / Jason Dorday

TAB bookies admit they have backed themselves into a corner that could see Sky Major start a surprise favourite in their New Zealand Trotting Cup book.

The superstar pacer is $3.20 with the TAB, up to $1.30 shorter than some bookmakers in Australia, where every bookie has Smolda as the Cup favourite.

Smolda was rated the $3.50 second favourite by the New Zealand TAB last night, in from $3.70 when the final field market opened but he got as short as $2.60 with the main Australian TAB bookmakers. But harness bookmaker Richard Wilson says they have now committed to trying to keep Sky Major as their best result of the two favourites, and that could mean keeping him under tote price right throughout today.

Which lends itself to the strange situation for a major group one of one horse being favourite in the tote - Smolda is likely to have that honour - and another horse favourite with the bookies.

"We had a lot of early money for Smolda through multis and he is a bad result for us," Wilson admitted. "And like everybody else we like him and Sky Major as the two main winning chances.

"So we don't want to drift Sky Major and then have him as a loser too. So we are making a stand by keeping Sky Major shorter, hopefully taking less money on him and making him a winner for us."

The flipside of that, of course, is the generous odds the TAB are offering for Smolda compared with offshore bookmakers could see the money continue to come for him and he could end up a horror result.

"We can see that happening but ideally we would like to keep them both around the mark they are now."

Wilson said that could force those just outside the favourite to drift and while he was trying not to give too much away, he hints that Ohoka Punter and Messini would be the two favoured runners most likely to drift closer to start time.

Messini would usually have strong Australian support on the co-mingled tote pools but with Arden Rooney trained in Victoria and Smolda, Sky Major and Ohoka Punter all having won group ones in Australia, Messini's light won't shine quite so brightly in the eyes of Aussie punters.

Monbet (NZ Trotting Free-For-All) has been the best backed runner, both in straight out bets and multis, while Lazarus (Sires' Stakes Final) and Have Faith In Me (race five) have also been smashed in multi bets.

"The punters are coming for horses from the Purdon-Rasmussen stable as they always do but not quite to the level of last year when they backed anything they lined up," says Wilson of the meeting where the stable trained seven winners last year.

"This year's fields look more open and if a couple of favourites from their stable lose early then we will have room to drift stablemates like Benicio (race eight) from his $1.40 quote."