Rolling the Wheeler fortune
John Wheeler is splitting his Wellington Cup hopes this weekend.
The New Plymouth trainer will produce in-form stayer Pentathlon in the Marton Cup at Awapuni today, while Diamantine has headed south to tackle the Vernon And Vazey Truck Parts Kumara Gold Nuggets.
Wheeler had hoped to try to extend Pentathlon’s winning streak to five in last week’s City Of Auckland Cup at Ellerslie but withdrew the Pentire gelding after the track became rain affected.
Wheeler has opted for the Marton Cup as Pentathlon’s Wellington Cup lead-up and had no concerns that the missed Ellerslie run had impacted on his preparation for the Trentham 3200m feature. ‘‘None at all,’’ he said. ’’He’s pretty much right up to the mark. I always had the Marton Cup, City Of Auckland Cup or the Trentham Stakes in mind for him but I only wanted to race him once going into the Wellington Cup. He’s only a four-year-old. He’s hard fit and I don’t think he needs any more than one run.’’
Pentathlon has been a big improver in past weeks, winning at New Plymouth, before scoring twice at Riccarton during New Zealand Cup week, then winning over 3200m at Trentham last month.
‘‘I expect him to go well on Saturday but it’s not his target race,’’ Wheeler said.
‘‘Our target is the Wellington Cup and he’s right on track. I’d be rapt if he runs a nice race and gets to the line strongly. I still think he’ll run in the first four. He’s going well.’’
Rosie Myers takes over the ride with Lisa Allpress committed to New Zealand Cup winner Jimmy Mac.
Eighth
Wonder
mare Diamantine, who ran second to Pentathlon over 2500m at Riccarton over the New Zealand Cup carnival, will have her Wellington Cup lead-up in the Kumara Gold Nuggets, having also missed a preparation run when the Stratford Cup meeting was abandoned after two races on New Year’s Eve.
‘‘Missing the Stratford Cup really buggered everything up,’’ Wheeler said. ‘‘I thought I’d go down there [to Kumara] and take a couple of horses down.
‘‘I’d never been down there for that meeting either and so there was the interest factor as well.’’
Wheeler accompanied the horses south on Thursday, took the ferry and drove down to the West Coast. ‘‘If she won stylishly, I’d probably have a go at the Wellington Cup with her. She’s such a good mare,’’ Wheeler said. A dream day for Robert and John Dunn at Nelson on Friday could be set to repeat on Sunday.
The father and son pairing were successful in four of the 11 races and look to have a genuine chance in the Golden Edge Nelson Cup on day two of the Nelson Harness Racing Club’s 125th Jubilee meeting.
John Dunn drove a hatrick of winners between races two and four with Kotare Yael ($2.20), Bite The Bullet ($1.50) and Kotare Kasai ($10.80) before getting back in the winning grove with Dalness Xchange ($10.70) in race six to give his father Robert four training wins for the day.
John Dunn confirmed all four winners would back up on Sunday.
The Dunn barn could not manage a win in the day’s feature, the Golden Edge Nelson Cup Prelude, with that honour going to the Mark Jones trained Rocker Band and Sam Ottley.
Rocker Band made short work of her first stand when she pinged away from the tapes to roll to an early lead. But the beautifully bred mare by Rocknroll Hanover out of 2005 New Zealand Cup winner Mainland Banner, gave Ottley a few nervous moments when she briefly galloped around the 450m mark as she jumped a pylon. A calm Ottley quickly settled the smart mare back into a pace and she ran away to win by two and a half lengths over Graduate Under Fire with the Nelson local Taittinger Rose a further two lengths back in third.
Rocker Band started favourite and returned a $2.70 for the win that came in 3-03.2 for the 2400m with a mile rate of 2-02.8 and closing sectionals of 55.9 and 28.2.
Jones has confirmed Rocker Band will not start in Sunday’s cup, which gives the Dunn’s an even better chance with Graduate Under Fire in the 3000m cup.
‘‘He’s gone really good today, I was wrapt with him,’’ John Dunn said. ‘‘If he gets a half decent run like he did today and as long as he steps, I can’t see why he won’t go good on Sunday. He’s very honest and tries his heart out every time.’’
Dunn was impressed with Graduate Under Fire’s stablemate Little Lion Man, who finished fourth in the prelude, and confirmed he will start in the cup.
Rangiora trainer Phil Burrows and Gavin Smith combined for a winning double with Onedin Highlander winning the Hoani Jack Cup for the maidens and Free Falling breaking the track record for the 2400m mobile when winning the C2 pace.