“We couldn’t ask for a better replacement and the horse is really well,” says O’Sullivan.
As remarkable as Waitak was winning the Railway last start, he is only second-favourite for the BCD as the bookies think Crocetti can extend his unbeaten run to eight starts.
Crocetti easily won his comeback race, the Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy, at Ellerslie on TAB Karaka Millions night, and that should improve him for the biggest test of his career this Saturday.
The TAB has Crocetti as the $2.50 favourite over Waitak at $5, with Bonny Lass on the next line at $8.
Molly sticks to the girls
Don’t expect outstanding filly Molly Bloom to attempt a “Prowess” at Te Rapa on Saturday.
This time last year, Prowess beat the older weight-for-age horses in the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes at Pukekohe while still only a 3-year-old filly, a rarity in New Zealand racing.
Molly Bloom still sits in the nominations for the $600,000 Herbie Dyke at Saturday’s mega-meeting, but O’Sullivan says she won’t start.
“She definitely isn’t going there. She will head to the Ellis Classic the same day,” he told the Herald.
That is the $175,000 3-year-old fillies race over 2000m, which would seem a logical step on the path toward the New Zealand Oaks.
But there is a twist in that tale too.
While Molly Bloom is the second-favourite for the NZ Oaks, O’Sullivan advises punters not to back her in that.
“I’d say the Oaks is doubtful,” he explains. “We have options like the Vinery Stakes [Sydney in March], or even letting up on her and looking at a Queensland campaign in the late autumn and winter.
“We will know more after this Saturday, but I wouldn’t be backing her in the Oaks.”
Cameron sharpens up
While Molly Bloom won’t head to the Herbie Dyke, defending champion Sharp N Smart will and has a new rider.
Matt Cameron will partner the giant 4-year-old in the 2000m weight-for-age race against $1.90 favourite Legarto.
Ryan Elliot rode Sharp N Smart to win both the Herbie Dyke and the NZ Derby at Te Rapa last year but he is sticking with Legarto, so Cameron has got the call-up.
He has actually ridden Sharp N Smart to win before, in the Champagne Stakes as a 2-year-old at Pukekohe in April, 2022.
It turned out to not be a bad-form race, as Sharp N Smart beat Waitak and Mr Maestro.
Trainer Graeme Rogerson says Sharp N Smart will relish the step up to 2000m on Saturday after his last-start sixth in the Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic at Ellerslie.
He will then head to the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes back at Ellerslie on March 9.
Both the Herbie Dyke and the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes are legs of the Summer Middle Distance bonus, worth $500,000 to the most successful points-scorer over four major races.
Legarto looks the warm favourite for that bonus, as while she only ran second in the Aotearoa Classic, the winner that night, Desert Lightning, won’t contest the last two legs.
Neither will Puntura, who won the first points race in the mini series the Thorndon Mile, as he will instead head to the Group 1 1600m at Ōtaki on February 24.
So while the Herbie Dyke will have genuine Group 1 depth, with Legarto the equal highest points-scorer still likely to chase the bonus and favourite for the next two legs, if she holds her form, she could be staring at a $500,000 payday on top of any stakes she wins in the next month.
Saturday’s meeting not only hosts the Herbie Dyke, the BCD and the Ellis Classic, but Waikato’s innovation race, the $350,000 Sir Patrick Hogan Karapiro Classic over 1600m.
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.
