Sheikh, rattle and roll of Carolina Reaper dice
Matamata trainer Graham Richardson may be losing one of the more promising horses in New Zealand to the most unlikely of destinations but the ascension of Carolina Reaper has still put a smile on his face.
The winner of the Easter Handicap at Pukekohe on April 23, Carolina Reaper has been sold to Dubai, where she will be one of the first imports for Australian trainer Michael Costa, who has moved there to take up a role as private trainer to Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Costa getting shoulder-tapped out of the blue to train for a sheikh in Dubai is one of racing’s less likely stories in 2022, as is he and his new boss purchasing Carolina Reaper, who three starts ago was getting beaten in a rating 74 at Ellerslie.
Her Easter win demonstrated her enormous potential, though, and now the mere $12,000 yearling sales buy is heading to one of the richest racing jurisdictions in the world, a rare New Zealand sale to the region.
“I makes me proud to think I was able to buy her so cheap and develop her into a horse they would want,” says Richardson, who trains in partnership with Rogan Norvall.
“It was a good sale but we will be sad to see her go because she is a lovely mare to do anything with and clearly very good.”
Richardson has some smart horses to go on with, though, and thinks one of those could be the stable’s sole starter today in Channel Surfer at the Whanganui meeting that has been transferred to Waverley.
“He is a really nice horse who we think can develop into an early season Guineas horse,” says Richardson.
“He only had one trial before his first-up fourth in a good juvenile field and we give him a good chance on Saturday, providing he handles the [heavy] track.”
That is the question for almost all trainers and punters this weekend and maybe for the majority of meetings in the next few months, with how horses handle the wet being just as crucial as their talent.
Channel Surfer’s field is one of the better contests for the weekend, one which got off to a stuttering start when the TAB had to close the final field markets for Whanganui and start again when the meeting was transferred to Waverley.
It is doubtful Waverley gets as deep as the worst version of Whanganui in winter but the best supported runner at the meeting was the same in both versions of the markets, with Justaskme being heavily backed to win the $60,000 weight-for-age 1600m. He has been $4.50 into $3 and looks set to wrest favouritism from early elect Secret Amour.
The latter is one of several strong chances for trainer Robbie Patterson today but he will be more focused on the A$700,000 Queensland Oaks in Brisbane in which he has the underrated Nom De Plume. She has barrier one and regular jockey Craig Grylls but is rated as long as $100 in the Australian markets even though her laststart ninth was better than it looked.
Kiwi mares Babylon Berlin and Letzbeglam are both each way chances in their A$250,000 Group 2 at Eagle Farm while the most intriguing New Zealand-trained runner is Sharp ’N’ Smart in the A$150,000 juvenile race, a rare Graeme Rogerson-trained starter in Australia in recent years.