Greg Childs will ride Wellington Cup winner Smiling Like in Saturday's Whakanui Stud International Stakes.
Owner Sir Patrick Hogan was left without a jockey when his Wellington Cup rider Michael Walker took the mount on Country Rose believing the Trentham race was Smiling Like's last.
Noel Harris, who was aboard Smiling Like winning the Trentham Stakes the week before the Cup, had already taken the ride on Cheiron.
Sir Patrick was made aware at Te Rapa races on Saturday that Childs would almost certaimly be in New Zealand this weekend riding Sunline in the Waikato Draught Sprint and he contacted the former New Zealand jockey at 10pm that night.
Sir Patrick denied rumours that Smiling Like had had a back problem since winning the cup.
"Nominations are tomorrow and acceptances on Wednesday and we won't be wasting our time and money on doing that for a horse that won't be starting," he said at the Karaka sales yesterday.
Dropping back from a 3200m handicap to 2000m at weight-for-age is a huge transition, but helping Smiling Like is the fact she has not had dour, tough races to win in her two Trentham appearances.
"I think she'll cope well with the 2000m," said Sir Patrick.
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Roger James is extremely pessimistic about his chances of getting Zonda to the races this autumn.
James said yesterday that Zonda was still significantly sore after tearing a muscle in the Thorndon Mile at Trentham last Saturday week.
"I know time is a great healer, but I couldn't see him doing any work inside the next two weeks, which means he will have missed three weeks.
"It would be five weeks before we could look at racing him and what would that leave?"
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Coup Ray's performance to finish third to Flying Babe in Saturday's $500,000 Mercedes Super Bonus Classique was phenomenal.
He would never have troubled the winner simply because as a horse who naturally gets back in running it would jave been impossible to give a start to something running 1:9.83 for 1200m in front.
But he almost certainly would have been second on Saturday but for racing erratically and shying away from other runners most of the way.
On the home bend Coup Ray and Michael Walker's mount Blackrock College had a bumping duel which did not assist either horse.
"After I bounced off that other horse the last time I grabbed him up and he came up underneath me sensationally," said rider Noel Harris of Coup Ray.
"At that point I thought I'd win, but that when I cleared a couple of runners and looked up and saw how far in front Lance was on Flying Babe I knew that was impossible."
The ground Coup Ray took off the leaders in the run down the straight showed him to be a horse of the highest quality.
And one of the toughest. Trainer Snooky Cowan marvels at the youngster's ability to cope with racing.
"Ten minutes after the race you would not have known he'd been out on the track," said Cowan.
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Colin Jillings and Richard Yuill may not have known they had a winning ticket in the Appeal Of Zabeel draw at Te Rapa on Saturday if it had not been for the proprietor of the contest, Sir Patrick Hogan.
Sir Patrick tipped the training pair to the fact it could be them and sent Yuill on a mission to find his ticket.
And the tease followed.
"How can people like this train your horses properly," ribbed Sir Patrick.
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There were a significant number of passings, particularly in the first few hours of the sale, but the average for the Select Fillies Sale at Karaka yesterday was still over $30,000, well ahead of last year's $26,900.
Racing: Two freakish mares await Childs at Te Rapa
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