Racing: Veterans face stern challenge in feature

Bulginbaah at the Ag Challenge Stakes at Wanganui in 2008. Photo / APN

Tomorrow's $100,000 Waikato Stud Opunake Jubilee Cup isn't just a case of age versus relative youth.

It's age and weight versus relative youth and comfortable weight.

Bulginbaah, rising 10 years old, has the burden of 59kg topweight and Samurai, a week away from officially turning 9, has 58kg.

Those are two incredibly tough asks, but then Bulginbaah and Samurai are tough horses.

They'll need to be.

Elblitzem, Spare A Fortune and Cent Per Cent are each in the right form to puncture the hopes of the top-weighted pair.

It's almost a year since Bulginbaah won his last race, the Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa, where he was suited to the weight-for-age conditions.

He has had to battle big weights in most of the 10 subsequent races and has turned in some fine performances for minor placings.

Samurai was coming off a six-month break when he separated Miss Raggedy Ann and Bulginbaah in a sprint at Hastings and should be improved for that run.

He is versatile in terms of distance, but four of his eight career victories have been scored at this 1400m.

He has Hayden Tinsley to help him get the money.

Elblitzem was in great form this time last year, starting off with a close fourth in Riccarton's Winter Cup and ending up with a winning run in the Matamata Cup.

The 56.5kg is comfortable, being only 2.5kg above the minimum weight if the emergencies do not regain entry to the field. He was a beaten favourite at Te Awamutu last start, but his close and strong-finishing third to Cent Per Cent was useful.

This time he meets Cent Per Cent 1.5kg better, which will more than take care of the short neck and long neck he was beaten by last start.

The 1150m Spare A Fortune tackled at Te Awamutu proved too short for him. He flew home into fourth and when you consider his good runs before that he rates highly here, as does Cent Per Cent.