Eamon Maguire will need to regain form to push for cup
EAMON Maguire will need to dig deep to send the New Zealand Cup trophy to Dunedin today.
The Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussentrained pacer comes into today’s 3200m feature after an unusually lacklustre third in the Kaikoura Cup.
The performance has sent the reigning Otago horse of the year’s campaign on a downward trend.
His former trainer, and the man that purchased and developed Eamon Maguire before syndicating him, hopes his star trainers have him back to his best in time for today’s event.
‘‘He just jarred up quite badly on the track at Kaikoura, Natalie said he just didn’t let down at all and a long way from home he was pacing a bit short because of the hardness of the track,’’ Graeme Anderson said.
Eamon Maguire was given time to recover from his Kaikoura run before having his final public precup hit out in the New Zealand Cup trial.
He only finished fifth of six runners, but the All Stars camp and his driver, Blair Orange, were happy with the effort.
‘‘He looked a little disappointing, but on talking to Blair he said he was too fresh and they weren’t running, so he pulled quite hard and past the post he was still going as good as anything,’’ Anderson said.
Prior to his Kaikoura run, Eamon Maguire showed he could beat New Zealand’s best open class pacers with his New Zealand recordbreaking win in the Ashburton Flying Stakes.
That win came after the horse stepped to the lead and found the trail before dashing up the passing lane.
A similar run today would give Eamon Maguire his best chance of winning.
‘‘He is normally a good beginner and if he can get across them and get a position, that is his go.’’
Eamon Maguire is raced by Anderson with fellow Dunedin owners Ray Chalkin and Tony Gow and Stephen Pulley.
Trevor Casey, of Christchurch, and Pauline Gillan, of Lochiel, also race the horse.
A horse with genetics developed in Otago has been the favourite leading into today’s $800,000 feature.
Tiger Tara might represent Australia in the race, but he is from a family that was developed in the South.
He was bred by the late Ray Anicich, formerly of Lawrence.
Tiger Tara has been primed for today’s race after going headtohead with Lazarus all of last season.
That racing means the Kevin Pizzutotrained pacer looks to have a major advantage in experience at grand circuit level over his rivals.
Eamon Maguire’s three stablemates, Thefixer, Cruz Bromac and Dream About Me, fill the next three spots in the cup betting.
Thefixer looks to be peaking at the right time after vanishing from the New Zealand Cup buildup because of a hoof problem.
The horse announced he was back and fit enough to win the race when winning the final leadup race for the event at Addington on November 2.
Dream About Me looks set for New Zealand Cup redemption after being wiped out of last year’s race.
She has had a perfect lead up to the race and looks a serious winning threat.
Cruz Bromac has also had a troublefree build up to the cup, which many of his rivals have not.