Dynastic can shape destiny after being bogged in the mud
The clash of the glamour girls in today’s $300,000 Tarzino Trophy is not the only major rivalry kicking off for spring but the first battle for threeyear-old supremacy will play out at two different tracks.
Hastings is today’s big dance, headlined by Imperatriz versus La Crique in the Tarzino but with plenty of reputations on the line in the Colin Meads Trophy (mainly boys) and the Gold Trail Stakes for the fillies.
Every spring starts with truckloads of hyped three-year-olds but the real stars quickly ascend, with only two months between today’s starting points for many at Hastings and Ruakaka and the serious prestige of the Guineas races at Riccarton.
They are almost everybody’s aim and the 2000 Guineas has been the target for Dynastic since he won the Karaka Million at only his second start last January.
He looked every inch a three-yearold star in waiting last season but this campaign has started bogged down in the mud, with two moderate wettrack trials raising huge questions marks over how he will handle a sodden Hastings track today.
“His trials on the wet tracks haven’t been great, so I really don’t know how he will go,” says champion jockey Opie Bosson.
That raises the possibility stablemate Fellini, who boasts race fitness and a soft track win at Taupo, could beat Dynastic, while there is plenty of depth in the race which could make it trickier for punters than it initially looked.
But the three-year-old discussions today won’t just centre on what happens at Hastings, but at Ruakaka, where Sharp N Smart (R5, No 1) resumes on what will be a better track surface.
He showed enough X-factor here and in Queensland last season to suggest he will stand up to the Te Akau army this spring.
How the classic crop is rated after just these two kickoff points to most of their campaigns will be intriguing.
The Gold Trail at Hastings sees the wonderfully consistent Pacific Dragon trying to extend her winter form into spring against exciting local filly Best Seller in another race where reputations will be dented and embellished.
Today’s results could also enormously affect the market for the 1000 Guineas, which has already been dramatically reshaped after last season’s two juvenile Group 1 heroines Maven Belle and almost certainly Lickety Split came out of the Riccarton classic.
The three-year-olds dramas, though, are still the sideshow to the biggest stage of Group 1 racing, and how the track plays during the day could determine Imperatriz’s starting price in the Tarzino.
If the rail holds up and those on the speed dominate all day, the hot favourite could drift from her $1.50 opening quote, as she did quite wildly at Te Rapa before bolting in last start.
But any punter fears over her drawing the outside barrier, with La Crique better off at five, could disappear if the track cuts up badly after eight races and those drawn wide get the easier run to the better ground.
Either way, with fitness, class and Bosson on her side, Imperatriz is clearly the one to beat in the first Group 1 of the season.