Racing: Winnings a heavyweight motive

Kerry O'Reilly (right) has emerged as New Zealand's newest staying star. File picture / Dean Purcell

There is too much money on the line for Jim Gibbs to consider protecting Kerry O'Reilly's handicap for the $600,000 Auckland Cup in March.

You could make a case for keeping the exciting Kerry O'Reilly away from the big time over the next two months to give him an even better chance of taking away New Zealand's richest extreme distance race.

Oldtime trainers almost certainly would not have considered even trying to win Saturday's Waikato Gold Cup with Kerry O'Reilly in an effort to sneak the horse into an Auckland Cup at the lightest possible weight.

But then, they did not have the temptation of the amount of money Kerry O'Reilly can run for in the next eight weeks.

"I'm not going to sit and wait," said Gibbs adamantly, as he weighed up Kerry O'Reilly's narrow but emphatic win at Te Rapa on Saturday.

Meantime, Kerry O'Reilly will run in the $150,000 Zabeel Classic at weight-for-age at the Ellerslie Christmas/New Year carnival.

At 2000m that is a much sharper race than the 2400m staying test on Saturday, but two things influence Gibbs.

"The class of the weight-for-age horses at the moment is not that strong and I've got 16 days to the race and I can freshen him up nicely in that time.

"If I needed to, he could run in the 2000m weight-for-age race at Te Rapa in February and that's all he'd need going into the Auckland Cup.

"He can back up as he showed last summer, but he can also get through without a lot of racing."

erry O'Reilly has yet to attempt the 3200m of the Auckland Cup, but everything about him suggests he will cope.

"He's got such a lovely, easy way of going," says Gibbs.

Kerry O'Reilly certainly dropped the bit and relaxed at the tail of the field on Saturday.

He was completely happy to go to sleep until, at the end of the back straight, Cameron Lammas decided to tack on to the back of the horse to beat, Filante Etoile.

Grant Cooksley managed to get Filante Etoile into a nice spot back in the field one off the rail from a wide draw, but the mare was pushed three out without cover at the 1200m, at which point Cooksley made the decision to go forward.

It gave Kerry O'Reilly the perfect drag around the field.

He quickly went up to challenge Filante Etoile then did what he almost always does, he decided he was going to do only what was required and no more.

Cooksley felt Filante Etoile may still have won had the mare not lost some of her concentration in the home straight, but Lammas was adamant the winner would have found at least half a length had the mare come back at him.

Gibbs is still mystified why Kerry O'Reilly turned in a shocker in the St Leger when a raging favourite at Trentham last autumn, but he said punters should not take that as a sign he won't manage the Auckland Cup distance.

"I was very happy with him going into that race and he did nothing. He blew quite hard and didn't pull up one hundred per cent, so the only thing you can arrive at is that he might have had enough, even though he gave me no signs that that was the case going into the race."

Trainer Richard Yuill will be pleased Filante Etoile will dodge Kerry O'Reilly at Ellerslie by taking the handicap route at the carnival through to the Auckland Cup.

Partee turned in a beaut for a close third, clearly appreciating the slight cut in the ground caused by a number of heavy showers that swept the course. Lisa Cropp lost her left stirrup iron with five strides to go, but did not believe that made a difference to the result.

There was a suggestion Lord Asterix was unlucky. He had to shift in one horse width to avoid Kerry O'Reilly's heels at the 350m, but had plenty of galloping room after that and only held his ground on the others in the closing stages.