That ruled her out of this Saturday’s $400,000 Tarzino Trophy, the first group one of the New Zealand season, which meant even if she had recovered quickly Kelso would have struggled to get the right racing into her for the remaining two legs of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown.
But with her connections now taking the patient approach, races like the Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders (Pukekohe, November 23), TAB Classic (Trentham, December 7) and the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day are all also off the table.
You could make a very strong case that a fit and in-form Legarto would have been favourite for all three of those races had she started in them.
The good news is that while she misses the rest of 2024, Legarto is still lightly raced having had just 15 starts, and is still only a five-year-old.
It feels like she has been part of our racing lives for so much longer than she actually has, probably because of her group one deeds that include wins in the Australian Guineas, Herbie Dyke Stakes and the NZ 1000 Guineas.
While Legarto won’t be seen at the Hastings carnival kick-off this Saturday, Kelso and wife Bev have had some good news as they prepare another flying female for the this weekend.
They take brilliant last-start Taupo winner Alabama Lass to the $120,000 Gold Trail Stakes and will be able to retain jockey Sam Spratt.
Spratt has missed the last week through suspension but that finishes on Wednesday so she is free to ride at Hastings.
She will be part of a very strong jockey contingent for Saturday as, in a rarity, none of our senior jockeys are suspended for this weekend, although premiership winners Michael McNab and Lisa Allpress remain out with injuries.
The trainers of some of our best gallopers now face an interesting start to the week as the Hawkes Bay weather looks set to shape Saturday’s fields, especially in the Tarzino. The Hastings track was in the ideal Soft 6 range over the weekend but with warm, drying weather forecast and very little rain this week.
If the forecast is right then the track could be firmer than some trainers want, especially for a sharp 1400m second-up run, so some of the proven wet trackers could pull out.
But the expected good surface will ensure warm favourite Crocetti starts rather than heading to Sydney, which was his next move if Hastings provided a heavy surface.
Trainers will have time to make those decisions though as the Tarzino has 16 starts and will have 6 ballots, so all 20 horses who remain in the nominations can be drawn in the field and their trainers have until Saturday morning to make their final decisions.
The field for the Tarzino will be released at 10.30am on Wednesday.
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.
