Patterson: Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Robbie Patterson doesn’t want to sound like the Grinch but he is hoping Auckland has a wet Christmas.
Because every drop of rain that falls should aid his chance of winning the $ 450,000 Zabeel Classic at Pukekohe on Tuesday.
Taranaki trainer Patterson brings Old Bold Cat north for the Group 1 centrepiece of the mammoth Boxing Day meeting and while he was impressive winning the Counties Cup on a good4 track at Pukekohe last start, any rain would help him and hinder some key opponents.
“He is up to them on top of the ground but they are saying they will get rain and if that happens it really helps us,” says Patterson.
The forecast, as much as these things can even be trusted, is for rain in the Pukekohe area tomorrow and Monday but with temperatures so high the track would quickly bounce back from that.
What would change the track conditions more would be rain on the day, which is forecast but how much of it turns up is impossible to know.
Before he comes north, Patterson has a strong team in at Trentham today including last- start Couplands Mile winner Puntura stepping up to weight- for- age in the $ 150,000 Manawatu ¯ Challenge Stakes.
“I don’t see why he can’t be competitive again because he is a big horse who will handle it and I hope they go along a bit so he can get across and get a spot as the field breaks open.”
Patterson, one of New Zealand’s leading strike rate trainers, rates Sinbin ( R8, No 7) and The Hottie ( R5, No 6) his best two chances today in that order.
Oaks winner retired
Two- time Oaks winner Pennyweka has been retired to stud.
Theō paki mare had only 12 starts for breeder and trainer Jim Wallace but won both the NZ Oaks and then the ATC Oaks in Sydney in a magical three weeks in March- April.
Those performances suggested she was a Cups horse but after failing to show her best this spring she was diagnosed as having an entrapped epiglottis that required surgery.
“She didn’t really improve much after the op and we had the option of another operation or returning her but really she has nothing left to prove,” Wallace told the Weekend Herald.
“So we are happy to let her be a broodmare but we still haven’t worked out whether we will breed from her or sell her.”
Pennyweka was raced by the Galloping Wekas Jazweka Syndicate and Wallace loved seeing smaller- time owners, breeders and trainers starring on the transtasman stage, especially at a time when his family was dealing with the loss of loved ones.
“Racing needs stories like this to keep the smaller players going.”
Ellerslie re- launch bonuses
Ellerslie’s two huge comeback meetings next month get better.
The track reopens after nearly two years on January 14 and while that twilight meeting will be minus the fanfare of the TAB Karaka Millions on January 27, it is set to attrach two of our top- flight superstars.
The trainers of Legarto and Sharp ’ N’ Smart have declared they will head to Ellerslie for an open handicap 1400m on January 14, using the race as a lead- up to the $ 1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic on January 27.
Legarto, who wasn’t put under any pressure in a trial at Matamata yesterday, and Sharp ’ N’ Smart will then target the Herbie Dyke and Bonecrusher NZ Stakes, making them big players in the new Summer Bonus series covering four elite races.
Not only Ellerslie but Trentham received another bonus yesterday with one of Australia’s two major racing TV channels, Racing. com, confirming it will be taking full coverage of four meetings next month.
That will bring extended coverage of the Telegraph meeting at Trentham on January 13, the Ellerslie comeback the next day, Wellington Cup day on January 20 and the Karaka Millions extravaganza to more eyeballs and punters, which is certain to increase turnover.