Concert Hall needs some tempo

The quiet achievers of New Zealand’s black type racing season may need just one thing to add a group one at Ellerslie: a genuine tempo in the $200,000 Zabeel Classic.

Training partners Roger James and Robert Wellwood sit second on the trainers’ premiership for black type wins this term with four, a impressive strike rate in elite level races for a stable which has had only 87 starters this season.

What they really want, what all trainer want, are Group 1 victories though and James believes in Concert Hall they have the horse to pull that off in the highlight of today’s mega meeting at Ellerslie. But he wants the race turn into a war of attrition.

“We want some tempo in the race, I don’t want to see them dawdling in front and then kicking hard,” James told the Herald.

“We are likely to get back, especially from a widish draw, and these weight-forage races at Ellerslie can some times be dominated by the leaders.

“But if they go a bit harder and the swoopers come into it she [Concert Hall] can win because she is very well and ready for the steps up to 2000m.”

Concert Hall has looked a stronger, more mature mare this season winning at group two and three levels over 1600m, while she was a brave second to a race rival today in Rock On Wood over the 1600m of the Captain Cook at Trentham three weeks ago.

She has winning form up to 2300m and

a hard run 2000m looks ideal for her now.

A frenetic tempo could also test the reserves of rivals like Rock On Wood and Gino Severini but the reality for punters is the Zabeel is a true group one with at least six or seven horses in play as winning chances.

The Zabeel isn’t the only chance for James and Wellwood to add to their black type tally today with chances in three other major races today but it is Cheaper than divorce in the $100,000 Jamieson Park Eight Carat Classic that excites them the most.

She only won a Rotorua maiden last start but did so like a a filly going places, maybe even to the winner’s circle after today’s group two. “We really like her, she has class,” offers James.