KEY POINTS:
Taukiri's modest formline belies the outsider's best asset in the Sharp Great Northern Steeples (6400m) at Ellerslie today - mental toughness.
It's the one quality Karaka trainer Caroline Pomare and 84-year-old owner Walter Clement will be clutching to most when they saddle their first runner in the $103,000 chase.
Up until the 10-year-old's maiden jumps success on the course two weeks ago - his first victory since his sole flat win in June 2003 - Pomare admits the Northern was just a pipe dream.
Pomare had patched him up from a career-threatening suspensory setback, but the chestnut was still struggling to pay his way in 17 luckless jumps races, 14 of those over hurdles.
The turning point came, however, almost from the moment Taukiri had his first look at the famous Ellerslie hill last month.
Pomare admits that at best he would run third with 600m to go of the modest 4150m maiden chase. "But he dragged a bit out in the run home," said Pomare, with understatement.
The real testament to Taukiri's stamina reserves though came on return to scale when Pomare found Taukiri bleeding from both nostrils. The vet soon cleared him to run again; he'd simply botched the first fence so badly his head had hit the ground. And just minutes later when she went to inspect Taukiri in the swab box, Pomare said it was almost as if gelding had not had a race.
Pomare knows her "tenacious little fella" will need to find another gear or two against chasing's Goliaths.
But she says he's trained on the right way since his Ellerslie win and deserves his shot in a race always vulnerable to an upset.
"It's the first two fences I'm worried about," said Pomare. "If he doesn't settle he'll be slaughtered but if he can, anything could happen - we know he jumps well enough," said Pomare.
It's ironic that first-time pilot Phillip Turner has the job of getting Taukiri to relax over the arduous three summits of Ellerslie's hill. Regular rider Shelley Houston has bailed out to partner race veteran The Storytella.
In a hurdle race at Rotorua last September Turner, aboard Man of Gold, copped a careless riding suspension for cutting off Taukiri and Kelly Murray so badly they almost went over the inside running rail. "I'll remind him that he owes me one when I see him tomorrow (Saturday)," said Pomare, with a laugh.
"That day the horse had to jump in the air to avoid hitting the rail but the rider still couldn't pull him up at the finish. He actually went on to jump the first fence after the finish. He's a tough little bugger who's needed some luck."
* The TAB's fixed-odds market for the Great Northern yesterday was:
$3.50, Hypnotize; $3.80, Real Tonic, Stitched; $5, Jump To It; $14, Bart, Just A Swagger; $21 The Storytella, Taukiri; $26, Tokiocity.
