“She is healthy and in good shape, but not screwed down,” he told the Herald.
“So she will improve with this, but we realise she should have a class edge and the weight-for-age scale should help us.”
That is why Alexander, who trains La Crique with his wife Katrina, is happy to see speedsters like I’munstoppable and defending champion Wessex in the field.
“It looks like there should be good speed and if she [La Crique] can begin well from two then she should be able to sit midfield outer and get her chance.
“But it would get trickier if she gets further back or one of the leaders gets away.
The better the tempo the better I think her chances are.”
La Crique hasn’t won over today’s 1400m trip since her maiden victory, but go through her defeats and they have been in elite races like the Tarzino Trophy (twice at Group 1 level), the BCD Sprint (Group 1) and the Westbury Classic (Group 2) so this is likely to be a far easier 1400m test.
The question for punters is, if you don’t back La Crique at her $3.20 quote toda, who do you back to beat her.
Put any horse in today’s field head to head with La Crique and she beats them.
But add in tempo, traffic concerns and the unusual nature of racing at Arawa Park and that equation becomes more complex.
But the $3.20 is still fair as the Rotorua weather looks to hold, so the track should suit the favourite nicely.
Kiwi interest split
Two of the stables with at least some chance of beating La Crique today also have favourites in Australian features.
Trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, who have Karman Line and I’munstoppable in against La Crique, also have Molly Bloom making her Australian debut in the A$160,000 Gold Coast Bracelet, which has been transferred to the Sunshine Coast.
The NZ 1000 Guineas winner faces a big test on a heavy track, but does look the class filly in the 1800m test.
Rival trainer Andrew Forsman, who has Wessex and Mary Shan in the Rotorua feature, has Positivity as favourite in the A$170,000 SA Fillies Classic at Morphetteville (4.02pm NZ time) today with Damian Lane to ride.
Kiwi mares Fashion Shoot and Wonderful Tonight also line up in the A$150,000 Proud Miss Stakes there at 5.12pm.
Purdon moving north
Harness racing’s greatest trainer, Mark Purdon, is moving north and will based in Matamata.
But, while Purdon will still be in partnership with son Nathan, he will have a reduced role in the business and spend more time with his thoroughbreds.
Purdon is moving north to be with his partner, Matamata-based veterinarian Barbara Hunter, and will bring four thoroughbreds with him.
“I have been enjoying training the gallopers and will continue to help out with them, but they will be stabled with Glenn Old up here,” says Purdon.
“I will work in with him, but I’ve told Glenn I’d like them to be in his name so I can have days away to do the harness horses as well,” says Purdon.
Nathan has been the main trainer in the father-and-son partnership for the past year, but still with plenty of hands-on work from Mark, who is widely considered New Zealand’s greatest harness trainer alongside his brother Barry.
After achieving almost everything possible in harness racing, Mark has taken time away from the industry at various stages in the past five years, but says his move north will obviously mean far less time at the stable’s Canterbury base.
“I will still talk to Nathan every day and help with work lists and we will also investigate taking over some boxes at the Cambridge [harness] track to base a team there over the summer when we always have horses come north,” explains Purdon.
“So I will still be involved, especially at carnival times and when the horses come north, but after the Auckland Cup carnival and a bit of a break I will be living in Matamata and I am really looking forward to it.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s racing editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
