Wet track won’t worry Humidor
Benner’s stable star is unbeaten from two starts in damp
Johno Benner is not among the trainers anxiously studying the rain radar for Hawke’s Bay this week. The Otaki horseman will have no concerns if stable star Humidor strikes a wet track for the $250,000 Livamol Classic (2040m) at Hastings on Saturday.
The Hastings track was rated as a slow 7 yesterday morning, with more rain predicted overnight and today.
Humidor has won on good and dead ground in his short career but is unbeaten from two starts on wet tracks.
He won the group three Manawatu Classic (2000m) on a heavy track at Awapuni in the autumn and was a runaway winner of a rating 75 1600m on a slow 7 track at Hastings last month.
“He’s pretty versatile and any rain they get [at Hastings] won’t worry me at all,” Benner said. “He’s proved he can go on any sort of track and a wet track might inconvenience a few of the others a bit.”
Humidor will be the least experienced Livamol contender, with just eight starts under his belt, but was a $4.60 second favourite in the fixed odds market yesterday.
He cemented a Livamol run when winning an open 2000m on the second day of the Hawke’s Bay carnival and has done well since.
The step up to weight-for-age will be a much tougher task than winning an open handicap from the minimum but Benner has long had the Livamol in mind. Though he accepts that the group one feature could have come up a bit quickly for the four-year-old.
“He’s still just a little bit raw and it might be a year too soon for him,” Benner said. “But we think he’s destined to be a weight-for-age galloper and we are not afraid to have a go. This has always been the aim since he won the Manawatu Classic.”
Humidor is from a Zabeel mare and has had two wins and a second from his four starts past 1600m. His one failure as a stayer came in last season’s New Zealand Derby. “That [the Derby] was a throw at the stumps,” Benner said. “They are only three once but it was too soon for him.
“He’s got a big motor and really good staying ability. He’s like the Energizer battery — he keeps going.”
In the longer term, Benner would be keen to get Humidor across the Tasman and the Australian Cup could become a target if the horse was able to win on Saturday. There is a precedent for a horse with Humidor’s relative lack of experience winning the Livamol. Cent Home was making his open class debut and having just his eighth start when he won by four lengths in 1999 and Just Call Me Sir won the race as a three-year-old the previous year, at his 11th start.
Benner and his partner, Hollie Wynyard, are still in their 20s and usually restrict their team to a dozen or less but have already made an impact at the top level with Vespa, who earned almost $1 million before going to stud this year.
Humidor is raced under the Jomara Bloodstock banner by siblings John, Mark and Rachael Carter, who also own Luna Rossa.
Rasa Lila still headed the Livamol market yesterday, but had eased a touch to $4. Mime was third favourite at $5.50 with Hasselhoof at $8.