James can almost touch it
ROGER JAMES is making the most of his second chance with Levin Classic favourite Touch Win.
The Cambridge trainer was the underbidder on Touch Win at Karaka as a yearling but his initial disappointment at missing the horse was swept away when he was offered the horse to train, on behalf of the new Hong Kong owner.
James had rated Touch Win, who was offered in the select session, as the standout yearling at the 2011 national sales series but could not match the bidding power of Hong Kong agent Willie Leung.
“I loved him [Touch Win],” James said. “He was the gorgeous horse and my pick of the three catalogues [at the Karaka sale].
“I got together good money for him, particularly as his sire, Excellent Art, was unknown at the time.
“I thought I had him at $40,000 but then Willie entered the bidding and we were the only two on him from there. It just kept rising and I finally had to shake my head at $180,000.”
It was good money for a yearling with an unspectacular pedigree and by a first season sire and that was emphasised when a half-brother, by Alamosa, made just $5000 at the select session this year.
Touch Win is also the fourth most expensive of the 77 Excellent Art youngsters to be sold at auction in Australasia.
But in Touch Win’s case, the money looks well spent.
He had gained a reputation before he raced, starting a $1.50
‘He has become really relaxed over the past month or so and is in the right space for his first go at a mile’
Roger James
favourite on debut, and has won three of his four starts.
His one defeat came when he finished a respectable fifth, at just his second start, in the Hawke’s Bay Guineas and yesterday was a $3.20 favourite for the Levin Classic.
He was dominating the market for the $250,000 Group I race (1600m), with the unbeaten Le Choix a $6.50 second favourite and Zinko, at $9, the only other runner at single-figure odds.
Touch Win was originally aimed at the Two Thousand Guineas at Riccarton but after his Hawke’s Bay Guineas run, James decided the horse lacked the ringcraft to send south, a decision he has not regretted.
“He’s had a lovely preparation for this [Levin Classic] and is going into the race in really good order. He had tended to be a touch aggressive in his races and his work but is a totally different horse now.
“He has become really relaxed over the past month or so and is in the right space for his first go at a mile.”
Since racing at Hastings, Touch Win has won a 1200m three-yearold race at Ellerslie and a 1400m 3yo at Tauranga.
He won by just a long neck at Tauranga, after starting at $1.90, but it was a better run that it might look on paper. He was three wide and in the open for most of the race and was giving 5kg to runner-up Pouri Chimes.
Pouri Chimes, who will be a rival again today, had finished a creditable sixth in the Wellington Guineas at her previous start and Touch Win will meet her 3kg better off in the weights today.
James has won the New Zea- land Derby four times but can recall having just two previous runners in the Levin [Bayer] Classic. Foxwood finished second, beaten a half-head by Love De Tor, in 1997 and St Beune was unplaced two years ago.
Touch Win will be James’ sole runner at Otaki but the stable will be represented in numbers at Ellerslie tomorrow, with Jack’s Run, Future King, Prestigious Miss, The Tidy Express and Le Moussier.
Top mare Silent Achiever has rejoined the stable, after having two weeks off following her Melbourne campaign, and her immediate target will be the Group I Darci Brahma Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa on February 9.
Talented stablemate and stud prospect He’s Remarkable has been retired. “He had become very colty,” James said.