The lion’s share of the $50,000 stake on offer would be nice, but for a few contenders in Monday’s Ashburton Flying Stakes there’s a little more riding on the race than just stake monies.
With the New Zealand Trotting Cup just around the corner, there’s plenty of ground to be both won and lost in the Ashburton feature and a couple of starters will be looking to shape up, or ship right on out.
Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen’s assault on the race was reduced from three to two on Friday when Methven Cup winner, Smolda was withdrawn due to irregular bloods.
“It’s nothing to serious, they were just out a wee bit and we would rather be safe than sorry,” Purdon said.
“At this stage he will head to Kaikoura which wasn’t our initial plan.”
Purdon said his remaining chances, Lazarus and Have Faith In Me had both trained on well from their Canterbury Classic runs.
“They’re both really well and should be pretty strong this week.
“Obviously there is a bit of pressure on Have Faith In Me to step away well after not quite getting it right, but Natalie believes he will eventually get there.
“But you would really want to see him getting away this week against a small field.”
Christen Me joins the All Stars duo after the late decision was made to start him after the race was initially off the radar.
There’s also Field Marshal. He’s not a Cup nominee, but is being aimed towards the New Zealand Free-For-All on Show Day so a good showing against a small shadow field of the Cup will be a good pointer toward his chances.
Tim Butt never had this race on the radar, but was keen to find out exactly where he was at and the only way he could do that was by heading to the races.
“We could keep going to the trials and running home in fast last halves, but you never really know until you go to the races,” Butt said.
“So we will have a look and see what transpires. He will obviously need the run, but you have to start somewhere.”
Probably the horse with the most pressure on him though is Tiger Tara.
A lacklustre, by his usual high standards, fifth when last produced left Geoff Dunn not completely happy so he backed right off last year’s New Zealand Free-For-All winner with a view to freshening him up for this assignment.
So there’s a bit of pressure on him to get back to somewhere near his best this weekend too.
Half an hour after the Flying Stakes the attention will turn to the Trotters’ Flying Mile and the resumption of Monbet.
The reigning Horse of the Year will kick off his bid to the Dominion Handicap from barrier seven.
Second at the workouts on Tuesday at Ashburton, Greg and Nina Hope and also Ricky May were all pleased with the effort and know that whatever the son of Love You produces this weekend, he will improve on.
His biggest danger, Marcoola has drawn on the second line which has left Clint Ford relying on a little luck.
“We will just have to see how things unfold, hopefully we can get a nice run through,” Ford said.
The race was robbed of Habibti yesterday after she was withdrawn due to a foot infection.
Super Selector – By Matt Markham
Race 1: Vincent, Pay Me Interest, Boults On Fire, Pirate Bay
Race 2: Mr Mojito, Kotare Yael, Usain Colt, Ears Burning
Race 3: Kingdom Come, Jean Sebastien, The Fox, Ella Abbe
Race 4: You Gotta Have Faith, Sparkling Delight, Cmeerock, Mr Woodlea
Race 5: Royal Shine, Lothario, All Star Angus, All Lit Up
Race 6: Piccadilly Princess, Dream About Me, Little Rascal, Quick As A Trick
Race 7: Lazarus, Have Faith In Me, Field Marshal, Christen Me
Race 8: Monbet, Marcoola, Sunny Ruby, Harriet Of Mot
Race 9: Crackared, Dalness Xchange, Gupta’s Cullen, Beyond Belief
Race 10: Superfecta, Christopher Banner, Chapter One, Well Armed
Best Bet: You Gotta Have Faith (Race 4)
Value: Crackared (Race 9)