Smith’s anxious wait for Derby contender
the extreme outside gate in the Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben tomorrow.
“If I don’t get prizemoney I don’t get in the Derby. I just got in this race,” Smith said.
“I’m not worrying about him staying, I’m just worried about him getting in the race.
“He will track up on the bit and break 34 (seconds) in his last 600m but he has to get in it.
“He’s just had little setbacks. He pulled a shoe off and tore his foot. He got cast in his box and his tendon swelled up.
“I’ve been a race behind all preparation. I had to run at Eagle Farm to have him fit enough to run (tomorrow) to try to get prizemoney.
“I also nominated him next Wednesday in a 1400m at the Gold Coast in case something goes wrong between now and then.”
The former New Zealand trainer, now 75, first came to Queensland in 1976 when he won the Brisbane Cup with Balmerino.
Underlining an incredible career, he won the same race 39 years later with Jetset Lad.
Smith has lived in the Sunshine State for the past 15 years and feeling as healthy as ever, the prospect of a good horse still gets the blood flowing.
“I’m excited. Larry’s (Cassidy) pretty excited about him too,” he says. “They don’t do what he did last time.
“I didn’t think he could win because he’d missed two or three days work but the way he tracked up at the half mile … he was just cantering.
“He cake-walked in the other day and he’s always shown he could do that.
“He picked up the leader and spat him out when he won his maiden and then he should have won easily in a Saturday three-year-old race next time out.”
Order Again is trying to build on an extraordinary season for the stallion Iffraaj, after his sons Gingernuts (Rosehill Guineas) and Jon Snow (ATC Derby) took out the classic double in Sydney.