Making a career out of that could sour a lesser horse or at least dull their enthusiasm for today’s task but West Coast came off the Riccarton training track on Thursday morning bouncing on his toes more like a 2-year-old than a 9-year-old.
“He can be a bit like that, he can still get excited by silly things,” says trainer Mark Oulaghan.
“But he is also very well. He will go into this as least as good as he did last week and as good as last year.”
West Coast was more workmanlike than crushing winning the Koral last Saturday but his record suggests the extra distance today will suit him more than most of his rivals even if it will exaggerate that 7kgs handicap.
“He is a very clean winded horse once he is up and racing and I think that really helps in these longer distance races,” says Oulaghan.
“So he should be the one to beat again.”
West Coast’s cause has been aided by his biggest danger, The Cossack from the Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal team, being withdrawn this week and likely retired but
the Nelson/McDougal team supply the horses Oulaghan’s jumpers need to beat in two other races today.
Oulaghan has favourite Berry The Cash in the $100,000 Grand National Hurdle as the unfashionably early start time of 11.40am and his biggest danger is clearly Nedwin.
The pair share the 73kgs topweight and their battle may simply come down to who feels the best when they get out of bed this morning as both will relish the heavy track and extra distance.
Berry The Cash was going to be beaten in his lead-up last Saturday until Dictation, who starts in Race 1 today, dropped his rider at the last so Nedwin appeals more of the pair as Nelson and McDougal look for the ultimate Grand National consolation after The Cossack’s injury.
Dictation would seem the bet of the day in Race 1 after nearly upsetting Berry The Cash last Saturday and dropping back to a 0-1 win hurdle but he actually meets a strong field for this grade, including the Oulaghan-trained Semper Magico.
He was a solid sixth on the flat carrying an enormous weight last Saturday and looks a jumper heading places but Dictation was so good last week his $2.60 today appeals as a good way to start the day.
Today’s other domestic meeting is a good betting programme at Te Rapa.
Star jockey Lisa Allpress faces a six-month recovery after fracturing her back in a race fall after the line at Riccarton on Wednesday.
New Zealand’s most successful ever female jockey was scheduled to ride in Japan next week but will now miss most of the season.
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.
