KEY POINTS:
Taranaki trainer John Wheeler is to press on with his Sydney Cup plans for Pentathon.
Pentathon finished second-last in the cup lead-up race, the A$200,000 ($230,000) Chairman's Handicap (2600m) at Randwick on Saturday, but Wheeler was willing to forgive the run because of a heavy track.
"He's always laboured on a wet track, except when coming through the grades," Wheeler said.
Pentathon, winner of last year's New Zealand Cup (3200m) at Riccarton, appeared to have come through the race without problems. "He's pulled up well," Wheeler said.
It was not a good day for New Zealand-trained horses at Randwick.
Zilzie, from the Waikato stable of Ross Elliot, finished last in the Chairman's while the Wanganui-trained Mettre En Jeu was second-last in the A$2 million AJC Australian Derby (2400m) for 3-year-olds.
Mettre En Jeu was back in Auckland yesterday as planned but there was disappointment in the camp over the wet track, said Nigel Auret, who is the father of the horse's trainer Fraser and bred and part-owns the Montjeu colt.
"He was okay until the pressure went on," Nigel Auret said. "We have never run the horse on a track that wet before. We had a gut feeling it wouldn't suit but we were a long way from home so we had to run."
"It was disappointing but it was probably disappointing for everyone but the winner.
Auret said one positive to come out of the trip was that the horse travelled well.
"You would swear he had been doing it all his life."
- NZPA
