Consensus tough in cup
CONSENSUS made it successive Group Three victories with a tough win in the Taranaki Cup (1800m) yesterday.
The Stephen McKee-trained mare had won just one race since landing the Gr.1 Zabeel Classic (2000m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, 2016, until dominating her rivals in the Trentham Stakes (2100m) last month, and is racing like a mare with an air of confidence.
The seven-year-old again looked beautifully placed under the set weights and penalties conditions and was well ridden by Chris Johnson to win narrowly from the fast-closing Dolcetto, while on-pacer Shadow Fox finished third.
‘‘It looked like 250m out she was going to run away, but Shadow Fox fought back and then Dolcetto came late, so she had to grind it out,’’ McKee said.
‘‘She got a great position. I actually thought that Overtheriver would go forward as well and that there would probably be a bit more speed on than there was, but Chris got in a lovely spot and she did the rest.
‘‘It’s really good to have her back in form. She is a past Group One winner so you don’t like to see their form tail off.’’
Consensus has now won 10 of her 52 starts, with a further 12 placings, for more than $600,000 in prizemoney.
McKee will likely bypass next week’s Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa.
The Ardmore trainer said Consensus might again been seen at the Sydney autumn carnival after performing credibly when fourth in last year’s Ranvet Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill, and sixth behind superstar Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick.
‘‘We’ve got a few options. There are a couple of options in Australia or the Bonecrusher (New Zealand) Stakes at Ellerslie.’’
● CAMBRIDGE trainers Roger James and Rob Wellwood narrowly missed out on taking out the Woburn Farm 2YO Classic (1200m) at New Plymouth, but managed to go one better when taking out the NZ Oaks Prelude (1800m) with Elate.
The Savabeel filly was caught out three-wide in the early stages of the race after a number of her rivals engaged in a speed battle for early supremacy.
Jockey Cameron Lammas was not content with his position and pushed on with his charge to take the lead down the back straight, and the pair did not relinquish their advantage for the remainder of the contest, going on to win by 11⁄4 lengths over Clementina, with a nose back to Jakkalbomb in third.
Elate wasn’t favoured by punters heading into the race, but James said the Group Three placegetter had put in a deceptively good unplaced performance last-start in the Royal Stakes (2000m), at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
‘‘Her form didn’t look good, if you looked at the numbers, but she actually ran a quicker 600m and 400m than the winner of the Railway last start, so her run was very solid there,’’ James said. ‘‘Cameron took bad luck RACE IMAGES PN
out of the equation. He made a decision that can go either way when you do that and I’m pleased to say it went the right way for us.
‘‘We have got a lovely set of owners [Colin and Helen Litt] and they are very supportive of the stable. To do that for them is quite special.’’ Lammas said he had no option but to press forward with Elate after being posted three-wide.
‘‘They got to the front and then stacked up and I thought they were going too slow,’’ he said.
‘‘I was wide and had no option but to go forward. She was happy once she got there [the front] and set a nice clip and kept kicking.
James said they would now head towards the NZ Oaks (2400m) next month.