Hale pins her hopes on Iffida
A Stradbroke Handicap trip is off for stable star Seventh Up, so the onus goes on Iffida to snare a stakes win for Cambridge trainer Shelley Hale today.
Hale has revealed that mucus in Seventh Up’s windpipe after his second placing to Galaxy Miss last Saturday at Te Rapa led to her to abandon Brisbane plans for the smart winter galloper.
‘‘Grant Cooksley said again after the race that he’s far better right-handed than he is on lefthanded tracks, but he still ran well,’’ Hale reported.
‘‘Galaxy Miss had a big pull in the weights and she looks like a smart mare so it was still a good effort.
‘‘We scoped him earlier this week and he had a bit of muck in his trachea so he’s actually going out. You’ve got to be 120 per cent if you are going to take on that level of competition.’’
Hale believes she has Iffraaj filly Iffida as close to her peak as she can get her ahead of today’sEllerslie 2-year-old feature, the Great Northern Foal Stakes (1400m).
‘‘She’s good. She’s eating well and working well. We’re happy,’’ Hale said.
‘‘If we could sneak a stakes placing, it’s going to look good on her CV. But win, lose or draw, it’s her last run for the season.’’
Iffida, bred and part-owned by Ellerslie commentator George Simon and his wife Maryanne, has had three starts so far, culminating in a third placing at Matamata.
‘‘She had a torrid run but she boxed on well. I thought she had every excuse to give up, but she battled away bravely,’’ said Hale, also among the part-owners.
‘‘She’s done well since and we’ll ride her a bit smarter on Saturday. It’s a good field, but if a few of them don’t handle the track or some- thing she could take advantage. She’s seasoned and she’s pretty professional.
‘‘We’ll give her a good spell after this and then give her the opportunity next season and hopefully she can measure up in some of those good fillies races.’’
Trail Blazer’s eye-catching debut performance has earned her a much earlier-than-anticipated shot at black-type when she opposes Iffida.
‘‘I didn’t expect to come away from a two-year-old race at Waipa thinking she would be having her next start in a stakes race,’’ said Rick Williams, general and racing manager of The Oaks Stud, owner of the filly.
By The Oaks Stud’s resident sire Roc de Cambes, the Robert Priscott-trained Trail Blazer placed in both her lead-up trials before she finished powerfully to run third at the first time of asking earlier this month.
‘‘She didn’t handle the bends too well at Waipa and once she was balanced she savaged the line,’’ Williams said.
‘‘She’s very strong physically and she’s already looking for the 1400 metres. She doesn’t mind wet tracks either and that’s obviously what she’s going to get on Saturday.’’
Trail Blazer is from a family Priscott knows well, as he prepared the filly’s mother Hot Pursuit to win two races before injury forced her retirement.
Hale has a strong second chance on the Ellerslie card with Close Up contesting the open 1200.
‘‘He’s so genuine. He’s forward and well but he does have 60kg to carry,’’ Hale said of the last-start New Plymouth winner. Grant Searle is fast running out of options with his Group-winning mare Bel Sorriso.
The Levin trainer is facing a handicap battle with the five-yearold, who will again carry topweight of 60kg in the Trentham Gold Cup today.
‘‘She’s got seven kilos more than those on the minimum again and, on a very heavy track over 2100 metres, it’s very, very difficult for her,’’ Searle said.
Bel Sorriso has won eight of her 27 starts but has twice failed to successfully carry 60kg.
‘‘She tries hard, but the weight just keeps getting to her,’’ Searle said.
As a black type-winning granddaughter of Zabeel and the Group I winner Smiling Like, Bel Sorriso has broodmare value and her future may soon lie in that role.
‘‘If the right offer came along then the owners would have to look at it, maybe it’s the best thing for her as a rising six-year-old,’’ Searle said.
Her place in the handicap aside, he is more than happy with the daughter of Keeper’s condition.