Sydney target for Rising Romance

Ruakaka trainer Donna Logan has confirmed she will look at options in Sydney for her outstanding filly Rising Romance, who finished a gallant second under Michael Coleman behind Puccini in Saturday’s Gr I New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie. Rising Romance settled further back than expected and was also inconvenienced in a top-of-the-straight incident involving Weregoingtogetcha that saw Kelly Myers suspended for three weeks for careless riding. “She’s pulled up unscathed and came home and ate up well, so I’m very happy with her,” Logan said. “I thought her run was enormous but we were just out-ridden. It was a case of Michael Walker [aboard Puccini] at his very best. The interference obviously didn’t help us, but we were just too far off Puccini and there was no picking him up when we’re giving him that sort of head start.” Logan all but ruled out a trip to Wellington for a tilt at the Gr I New Zealand Oaks (2400m) on March 15. “If she continues to please me with the way she has come through the run over the next few days, we will probably look at Sydney,” Logan said. “It’s a 10-hour float trip to Wellington for the New Zealand Oaks versus a three-hour flight to Sydney. The ATC Oaks is worth $1 million and the Derby is worth $2 million, so it’s a no-brainer really.” The Gr I Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill on April 5 is the likely first step for Rising Romance.

McKee on weather watch

Ardmore trainer Stephen McKee has one eye on this week’s weather forecast as he puts the final touches on his Auckland Cup charge Chaparrone before tomorrow’s big race. The mare, who ran a powerful third in the 2013 edition of New Zealand’s feature staying event, jarred up badly at her last run when tailing the field home in the Avondale Cup and McKee is keen to avoid a repeat this week. “She has got to that stage in her career where she does feel the firmer tracks and won’t let down like she can, so some rain before Wednesday would be in her favour,” he said. “She went a beauty on an off track in the City of Auckland Cup on New Year’s Day, so if we get some rain then it will play into her hands. Those last two runs look bad on paper but she has been working well and I think she can be right in it if she gets a surface that she likes. There is some rain forecast today, so I’m hoping it will be enough to soften the track up for her.” McKee will also line-up the likely favourite in his family-sponsored event, the McKee Family Sunline Vase for the three-year-old fillies, in which New Zealand Oaks hopeful Moozoon competes.

Zabeel on target for hat-trick

New Zealand-bred Hobart and Launceston Cups winner Epingle has boosted champion sire Zabeel’s claims to a third straight Australian broodmare sire premiership. After the feature Tasmanian double by Epingle, the now-retired Cambridge Stud champion leads the Australian dam sire list with more than A$7.4 million. Zabeel is the dam sire of 133 individual winners in Australia this season. They have won 185 races, including 12 at black-type level. The leading earner this season from a Zabeel mare is Atlantic Jewel, winner of the Gr I Caulfield Stakes and the Gr I Memsie Stakes in the spring.

No Appearance to rival Dundeel

Appearance will miss the Chipping Norton Stakes, but trainer Guy Walter says a recurrence of the tying up problems she has suffered in the past is only minor. Walter said the mare would be redirected to the Canterbury Stakes (1300m) on March 15, a week after the Chipping Norton (1600m), the first Gr I race of the Sydney carnival. “It is only temporary. I’m just not 100 per cent happy with her,” Walter said. Appearance’s defection means Waikato galloper Dundeel looms as the horse to beat in the Chipping Norton. Cambridge trainer Murray Baker is confident about last year’s three-year-old Sydney triple crown winner, who showed his readiness with a two-length barrier trial win last Monday. “He had a jump-out in New Zealand before he came here and he is fit,” Baker said.

Guineas winner chases Cup

Shamexpress could return to Royal Ascot if he performs up to expectations, but trainer Danny O’Brien has ruled out an overseas trip for Shamus Award. O’Brien confirmed the plan to back Shamus Award up in the Australian Cup at Flemington on Saturday, seven days after the colt added the Gr I Australian Guineas to his Cox Plate win. Shamexpress, unplaced in two English starts last season, showed he was on track for a defence of the Newmarket Handicap (1200m) on Saturday when second to Snitzerland in last month’s Gr I Lightning Stakes. “The big one for Shamus Award is to get back for the Cox Plate again. He won’t be going anywhere after Sydney,” O’Brien said. “Shamexpress will be very hard to beat in the Newmarket. If he won that his next target would be the TJ Smith in Sydney. This will be his last season of racing. He will be at stud in the spring, so I would not rule out Royal Ascot, but first of all the Newmarket and the TJ Smith are his aims.” The trainer said Shamus Award had come through the Guineas in good order and was ready to take on the older horses again, as he did in the Cox Plate. “He’s pulled up really well,” O’Brien said.

Dissident wins Hobartville

The pre-race drama surrounding the withdrawal of the favourite could not take the gloss off Dissident’s win in the Hobartville Stakes. El Roca was taken out of Saturday’s Gr II race at Rosehill by stewards after he was found to have been given a treatment on Friday morning against the rules. That left Woodbine as the favourite, but he could only muster enough in the wet to finish fourth, with Dissident taking control after racing on the pace and holding off Waikato galloper Atlante by a head. It was a welcome turnaround for the Peter Moody-trained colt, who had not won since he claimed last year’s Blue Diamond Preview on debut and finished second to El Roca two weeks ago. “This will be a real confidence boost for him,” Moody’s Sydney representative Claire Cunningham said. Atlante is also headed to the Gr I Randwick Guineas (1600m) in two weeks, with his trainer Murray Baker impressed with his effort on an unsuitable surface. “He was flat at the 800m and he hadn’t raced for four months, so it was a good effort,” Baker said. “The only other time he has raced in the wet he finished 30 lengths last, so he will be better on a good track. Hopefully he gets that in the Randwick Guineas.” Savvy Nature ran home well to finish 1½ lengths from the runner-up on his path to the three-year-old Gr I features.

Orion pleases Forsman

Promising three-year-old Orion showed he was ready to make his raceday return this Saturday with a comfortable win at the Matamata trials last week. The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsmantrained gelding hasn’t been seen since a Melbourne spring campaign that finished disastrously after he contracted an illness following a top effort for second at Moonee Valley. “He is the type who might be a candidate for Brisbane in the winter, but that is a long way in the future at this stage,” Forsman said.