Melt ready to fly in 1000 Guineas if she flies at all
Nigel Tiley has star filly Melt in perfect order for tomorrow’s Gr.1 Gavelhouse.com New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton. Now he just needs nature to play its part.
The Pukekohe trainer made his way down to Christchurch to be on hand for Melt when she arrived down by plane on Wednesday. Trouble is, the flight didn’t arrive. And again, the plane didn’t depart Auckland yesterday leaving Melt in a precarious position of needing the flight to depart this morning or else missing her target race. “The flight has been delayed two days in a row. We’ve got one more roll of the dice in the morning. There was fog at the airport and you can’t beat nature,” a philosophical Tiley said.
“What can you do? They won’t take off if there’s a chance of fog at Christchurch because they’ve got horses on board that aren’t cleared to go on to Sydney.
“We just have to roll with what’s been thrown at us. We could have been down here three or four weeks ago like Guy Lowry and Tony Pike have done with their horses but that wasn’t the path we chose to take.”
Fellow 1000 Guineas candidates Media Sensation and Valalie are also booked on the flight south along with several other horses engaged to race at Addington today and Riccarton tomorrow.
Should nature allow the flight to go ahead as planned, Tiley expects Melt to prove extremely competitive after beating last week’s 2000 Guineas (1600m) winner Madison County in the Gr.3 Northland Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) at Ruakaka then finishing second to him in the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) at Hastings last month.
Tiley will also produce Spirits Aubeer at Tauranga, the three-yearold shooting for three straight wins in the Tauranga Hardware And Plumbing 1400.