Glory Days eyes holy grail
Thurlow hopes to be high on Craig’s list for great race
Kiwi trainer Bill Thurlow isn’t taking Glory Days to Flemington on Saturday to try to win. He is taking her there to try to keep his jockey.
The Auckland Cup-winning mare makes her Victorian debut in a 1700m handicap this week on the track where Thurlow hopes to have her in the Melbourne Cup on November 5.
Even getting a New Zealand horse into the Melbourne Cup isn’t easy these days but Thurlow is confident the mare’s third in the Sydney Cup last autumn will help.
Glory Days was given 52kgs for the Melbourne Cup, pretty much as Thurlow expected, when the weights were released yesterday.
So with Australia’s greatest race the main aim, Thurlow’s job is to get Glory Days ready for 3200m and to keep the services of champion jockey Craig Williams.
Williams has been engaged for Saturday’s race but is obviously high on many trainers’ hit lists for preferred Melbourne Cup jockeys so will have plenty of options in the next seven weeks.
“We would love to have him on for the Cup and because he can ride light it is realistic, but that all comes down to what he wants,” admits Thurlow.
“So while I don’t think she can win this Saturday I’d love her to get back and hit the line well and give Craig a good feel so he would be keen to stick with her.
“She actually has 60.5kgs on Saturday because she has been given a few more rating points over here than back home but that will help with getting her into the Melbourne Cup
so I am not moaning about it.”
Thurlow blames himself for Glory Days’ first-up failure on a bottomless Otaki track three weeks ago.
“I shouldn’t have started her, it was just too heavy,” he says of the mare crowned NZ Stayer of the Year on Sunday night.
“So I’ll have to cop that one but back on top of the ground this week she will go better.
“In saying that she only got here on Sunday and her coat is only starting to come away now, so there is a lot of improvement in her.”
Safely through Saturday, Thurlow will aim at second-tier feature races like maybe even a A$125,000 Benalla Cup over 2046m on September 27.
“I think once she gets up to 2000m she will start to be competitive but I want to keep her away from the top ones and then we will have to start meeting them in either a Caulfield Cup or the Herbert Power depending how things go. But the trip she had to Sydney back in the autumn has helped. She didn’t travel that well back then but to my eye she has settled in better this time already.
“And we are out at Patrick Payne’s place so we are away from everybody and all the fuss.
“Still, we are over here and aiming at the Melbourne Cup and it doesn’t get much bigger than that. So it is pretty exciting.”
While New Zealand horses like Te Akau Shark and The Chosen One were largely luckless but still impressive in Australia last weekend, there will be fresh Kiwi legs joining the fray this weekend.
Yourdeel, who was crowned our champion 2-year-old for last season at Sunday’s national awards, makes his Australian debut also at Flemington on Saturday for new trainers Hayes/Dabernig while Volpe Veloce is nominated for two races in Sydney after a recent impressive Taupo trial.