Baker has right ingredients for last crack at glory in Derby
Winning any derby is a big deal. Regal Lion, if he backs up, has to be a chance.
Murray Baker
New Zealand training legend Murray Baker will watch his last crack at Derby glory from afar but will be trying to add to his extraordinary Group 1 record closer to home.
Baker retires from training on May 1 and has three more shots at Group 1 glory, two of them today when Lickety Split contests the $245,000 Sires’ Produce at Awapuni a few hours before training partner Andrew Forsman saddles Regal Lion and White Noise in the A$2 million ATC Derby at Randwick in Sydney.
While Baker has trained all sorts of horses to win a vast array of Group 1 races in his storied career, it is derbies he is most famous for, having won five ATC Derbies, two New Zealand Derbies and the Victoria Derby.
With Regal Lion booming into second in the final lead-up, the Tulloch Stakes on Monday, he is second favourite for today’s classic likely to be run on a heavy track and he gets the huge bonus of James McDonald in the saddle for the first time.
“Winning any derby is a big deal,” says Baker. “And I think we have two good chances, with Regal Lion really stepping up on Monday, so if he backs up, he has to be a chance.
“He’s a real derby horse, an outand-out stayer, and I think he’s come to it at the right time.
“How he will handle a really wet track, I don’t know, but it is great to get James back on, so we have a hope.”
Baker will travel to Awapuni with Lickety Split and says he will find somewhere in Manawatu¯ to watch the Derby before returning home.
Rather than get emotional about the end of a great career, Baker says there is work to be done.
“I think this filly [Lickety Split] is pretty good, but she meets a good field, so her race won’t be easy,
“I’m not too worried about her wide draw, though, it’s a good run from the 1400m at Awapuni.”
The Group 1 phase of Baker’s career will come to an end when The Chosen One contests the Sydney Cup next Saturday, with the stable unlikely to have a runner in the last Group 1 of the New Zealand season, the NZ Breeders’ Stakes on April 16.
“But I’d settle for any one of the three Group 1s we have left. Group 1s are hard to win.”
Today’s Awapuni meeting may be the end of Baker’s domestic Group 1 career, but it is the start of the new Te Akau, with Mark Walker resuming as head trainer there, as Jamie Richards has left the business and will move to Hong Kong next month.
Walker, with Dynastic and Maven Belle, provides two of the favourites for today’s Manawatu¯ Sires’ Produce, with local filly Wolverine the other major player, with tempo and whether the track cops any rain crucial factors, but maybe Maven Belle the best bet of the quartet.
While New Zealand has one of its smallest ever representations on the first day of The Championships in Sydney, there will be huge Kiwi interest in the A$2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes, featuring giant killer mare Roch ’N’ Horse.
She stunned the Australians winning the Newmarket at Flemington last start.
But today, she steps up to an even tougher sprint against Nature Strip, Eduardo and Masked Crusader, while Roch ’N’ Horse’s owners Little Avondale Stud also have Belluci Babe in the sprint.