Bullard sweats it out before taking to track
Jamie Bullard will probably spend a total of five hours in a sauna before riding at the Southland Racing Club’s Gold Cup meeting at Ascot Park tomorrow.
The Christchurch jockey travels to Invercargill today with intentions of having a sauna tonight (for two hours) and in the morning (three hours). After each hour he will leave the sauna for a short break.
Bullard, who has had 37 wins this season, is booked for Zabene in the $25,000 Southland TimesInvercargill Gold Cup (2550m). He will be aboard Coat Of Arms in the $47,750 ILT Ascot Park HotelSouthland Guineas (1600m).
The horseman will tomorrow go without food until after his ride on Coat Of Arms in race seven. He can then have a snack because his mounts later in the programme are carrying heavier weights.
Topweight Zabene deserves favouritism for the Cup after a game third in the Dunedin Cup at Wingatui on February 4.
He raced wide from 1000m in that event and rallied well in the straight.
The Zabeel gelding showed his class when winning the Gold Club Metropolitan Trophy on the first day of the New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton on November 5.
Zabene was to have started in the New Zealand Cup a week later, but he became a late scratching when it rained on the day and the track deteriorated. He has had two placings in the metric two-miler, with a third in 2010 and a second in 2009.
Tomorrow Bullard will ride Zabene for the first time.
“On paper, he looks the one to beat,” Bullard said.
Race rival Amigo is an Ascot Park specialist, having raced there three times for as many wins. He won by seven lengths in a rating 75 2000m on the course eight days ago for jockey David Walsh and Ascot Park trainers Graham and Michael Eade.
Graham reckoned Amigo had slightly improved since the vic- tory. “We galloped him yesterday and he went good. I think he’ll go all right.”
Walsh said Amigo won “extremely well” last week and the extra 550m tomorrow should not worry him.
John Sargent, who trains at Rangiora and Matamata, is happy with Kiwi Hussler’s condition going into the Cup.
“He’s fit and hard, the distance (2550m) is my only query,” Sargent said yesterday. Kiwi Hussler faded to 12th in the 2400m Dunedin Cup on February 4.