Racing: Trainer willing to forgive and forget Miles' last run

Peter McKenzie only wishes he could have found something wrong with Miles this week.

At least then the Levin trainer could have stopped wondering why the exciting wet-track talent failed so miserably in last Saturday's Winter Cup at Riccarton.

Despite winning his last four races on the trot, the $4.85 favourite beat only one horse home in the worst performance of his 21-race career.

"It was just an inexplicable run," said McKenzie, who is understandably praying for a major form reversal in the $50,000 Winter Classic at Riccarton tomorrow.

"I would be much happier if I could explain it; we've had everything tested since but there just seems to be nothing wrong with him.

"This race doesn't really do anything for him as far as the spring cups go, but he's been working well this week so he might as well go around again."

McKenzie's best guess at what went wrong in the Winter Cup is that the His Royal Highness five-year-old simply didn't cope with the puggy track.

And once he made his mind up that he didn't like it, he just switched off, believes McKenzie.

For those willing to forgive and forget, Miles does get a couple of major factors in his favour again tomorrow.

The first is the track. With so much rain in Christchurch this week, Riccarton should offer a much looser surface than it did on the first day.

And Miles also steps back up 2000m, a distance he's unbeaten over in two attempts.

While freshened up a treat to run 1600m last weekend, Miles had not even run a placing over that trip in five attempts.

McKenzie also believes Miles was badly off at the weights compared with horses like Balmuse and Final Reality.

Back to his best McKenzie knows Miles beats stablemate and Winter Classic rival Bejayjay everytime.

But McKenzie also knows a 23 length turnaround - the gap between them when Bejayjay ran fourth in the Winter Cup - is a lot to ask.

He also says that nine-year-old Bejayjay, the winner of the Winter Classic two years ago, is back close to career-best form and will relish the looser track tomorrow.

If it wasn't for a minor stifle injury in June though, McKenzie admits that Bejayjay may have instead been lining up in the Grand National Steeplechase.

McKenzie said it was only a matter of Bejayjay getting his jumping ticket as recent as two months back and he would have sneaked into the 5600m National on the minimum weight.

"He's come right with a vengeance since his injury thanks to the work of Tommy Burns who's done a lot of work on his back. But we'll be back for the National next year."

Promising sprinter Flurry kicks off McKenzie's attack on the carnival's last day when he tackles an R90 1200m event.

The four-year-old looked to have the first-day 1000m R90 dash at his mercy, but tied up badly inside the final 50m on the puggy surface and faded late to finish fourth.

"He was never handling it at anytime," said McKenzie. "He was going to win by two or three lengths 100m but then got stuck in the ground.

"The looser ground and wide draw should help on Saturday and he should go a good race - he's an honest fella."