Waisake getting up to speed for Wellington Cup
Allan Sharrock says he has Waisake right where he wants him for his Wellington Cup defence.
Which is why he is almost certain he won’t be winning the $60,000 Marton Cup at Awapuni today.
Waisake was a finalist for New Zealand Stayer of the Year last season after winning the Wellington Cup and St Leger, giving him the rare distinction of having won both his starts further than 2400m.
But he has been slower to come up this season than Sharrock planned, maybe not totally surprising for a 7-year-old, but the New Plymouth trainer thinks his staying star has turned the corner.
“He’s coming to it far more now and it’s a matter of tightening the screws,” Sharrock told the Weekend Herald. “I don’t think you’ll see him jump out of the ground this weekend, but next week, he’ll go to Trentham and have the hood back on.
“So this week’s run, the hood and the big track, I think he will be better again next week and then spot on for the Cup [Trentham, January 29].
While the astute Sharrock doesn’t think Waisake will win today, it doesn’t mean he has given up on winning the Marton Cup.
“I think my other horse, Our Hail Mary, will be hard to beat. She’s been racing over shorter trips so far this campaign but steps up to the 2200m and she won the Trentham Stakes this time last year over 2100m. So I think she’s a big show on Saturday.”
The Sharrock pair get healthy weight advantages in the Listed race over House Of Cartier, whose run in the Zabeel Classic last start is forgivable as she got back in a sprint home Group 1 on a track probably too dry for her.
While today’s assignment is easier, she still has to carry 59kg, a lot for any mare in a decent handicap race.
Sharrock suggests punters could do worse than follow another couple of starters from his stable in earlier races today. Sumi (R4, No 5) looks a smart mare in the making who found herself in tight quarter late last start.
“She’ll be better for that run and while her main aim is getting some black type in the Wairarapa Breeders on Waitangi Day, she will race well this weekend.”
He says his best chance of the day is almost certainly Darci La Bella in race three. The winner of five of her eight starts, she was beaten by a race rival today in Stumpy in a similar Awapuni race last start, but meets him 1.5kg better off in the weights today, with apprentice Masa Hashizume claiming.
“There wasn’t a lot between them last start and I’m hoping the weight is enough to make the difference.”
Thoroughbred punters find themselves with an extremely rare Saturday without a meeting in the northern region, with Ellerslie tomorrow instead and hosting 2 and 3-year-old races with potential major implications on the $1 million features ahead, the Karaka Million and Vodafone Derby.
That leaves the only other meeting of any of the three codes domestically the historic Gold Nuggets meeting from Kumara.
The race is, as usual these days, dominated by North Island-trained horses, with the most intriguing being former Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes and Caulfield Guineas prelude winner Sacred Elixir.
Now trained by Kevin Myers, he would be one of the best performed gallopers to race on the famous West Coast circuit in the past three decades and was luckless when running on at Reefton on Wednesday.
He has a wide draw and huge weight today but was heavily backed to win today’s race as soon as the market opened on Wednesday.