If Dark Destroyer pulls out a week after Sharp ‘N’ Smart dropped out of contention, the weights for the $500,000 Barfoot And Thompson-sponsored Cup will need to be raised again, as the race must have a topweight of at least 57kg.
At the moment, Dark Destroyer is the topweight with 58kg, but if he comes out, then Prise De Fer, who has been allocated 55.5kg will become the new topweight carrying 57kg, and many of those below him will also have a 1.5kg increase.
But wait, there’s more.
Co-trainer Mark Walker says Prise De Fer is also no certainty to start in the Auckland Cup after finishing third last in the Avondale Cup, with no decision to be made until after today’s weekly Monday trot-ups (inspection of horses).
If Prise De Fer doesn’t start, then Dionysus will become the new topweight, rising from his originaly allowed Cup weight of 53.5kg to 57kg and that would mean many of the horses currently set to carry 52kg in the Cup will end up being weighted between 55.5kg and 53kg.
That would open them up to being ridden by some of our senior jockeys who missed the Avondale Cup because the majority of the starters carried just 52kg.
What looks almost certain now because of some of the Avondale Cup failures is that Mark Twain, who was in danger of missing the Auckland Cup after being ranked 23rd, will get into the field.
Asterix’s win courtesy of a beautiful ride from Lynsey Satherley, has moved him to $5 favouritism for the Auckland Cup ahead of Dionysus and Mark Twain, both at $7.
Favourite Terra Mitica missed the Avondale Cup with a hoof issue but trainer Lance Noble is still hopeful of getting her to the Auckland Cup via a lead-up race at Matamata this Saturday.
Queen on ice
The Imperatriz army may have to wait over a month to see their Queen again. The mighty mare was equal measures brilliant and brave winning the A$1 million Black Caviar Lightning over 1000m at Flemington but now faces a drought of weight-for-age sprints in Victoria.
Imperatriz could start in the Newmarket back at Flemington on March 9 but that is a handicap and trainer Mark Walker didn’t sound overly enthused at the prospect of asking her to give weight to every horse in the race.
Her next weight-for-age 1200m event (her sweet spot) is the A$1 million William Reid Stakes at The Valley on March 23, the race that started her Australian domination last season.
With Imperatriz almost certain to not head to Sydney until she possibly targets the TJ Smith on April 6, the William Reid looks her only Group 1 option before then.
“We won’t make any decision until I go back there next Friday and we give her a gallop on Saturday,” says Walker.
“So we aren’t ruling anything out but I’d say she will only have two or three more runs tops this campaign, and one of those will probably be the William Reid.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
