The Sires’ Stakes Series and season Finals may seem like a month away, but we’re just three weeks out after this Labour holiday weekend. That makes Super Monday make-or-break for some stakes contenders. Sparks will fly—and some will cry—if they spill their last chance for Cup Week!
It’s been a cracking couple of weeks for Cran, Chrissie, and Carter Dalgety’s Kentuckiana Racing barn—but their best filly, Beside Me, finds herself in a bind.
She looked her big, bold, beautiful self at the trials, but turned in a below-par performance at Addington in Heat 6 of the Nevele R Fillies Series.
The long-striding girl usually blazes around her home base but settled beyond mid-pack and never really got wound up on a wet and windy night—finishing, for her, an underwhelming sixth.
A fortnight later, with some gearing changes and a more favourable front-running trip, she was tipped over by Cullen Racing dynamos Winelight and Arafura.
No shame in that—but in similar circumstances earlier in the season, she’d have had the edge. So, facing a Top 3 or better in the final series qualifier in Ashburton or the bench for Finals Day the Kentuckiana camp has decided to put the pony first and step away from Ashburton altogether.
That’s correct!
Beside Me won’t contest the final Nevele R Series heat and therefore she’ll, in all likelihood, miss the Nevele R Final on November 11 unless there are multiple defections!
Her biggest fan, driver Carter Dalgety says he and the connections think too much of her to run on Monday even though she might be good enough to get through it.
“We just haven’t been happy that she’s at her best so far this Spring. Can’t pinpoint it. Might be seasonal or a growing spurt thing but chasing her up to run in what will be a hectic race then follow through that with the final then the Oaks? We’d never forgive ourselves if we ruined her trying so we and her are taking a breath”.
Beside Me, is still eligable for the Final by way of starting in a heat but will probably instead run on the support card cup day and focus on the New Zealand Oaks at the end of the carnival instead.
In a tricky situation too— due to absence rather than form—is trans-Tasman traveller and Queensland Carnival conqueror Captains Mistress. The classy, Northern Oaks-winning filly will make her fresh race return in this weekend’s final heat, having been given time to rest and reboot from her winter sojourn by trainer Nathan Williamson, who’s opted for just a single trial in preparation.
“We’re ideally a trial behind because she took an extra week to get back from Australia and the Spring weather down here has been pretty adverse for a perfect preperation but yeah confident she can make her own luck and qualify.”
When the fastest filly in the group drew barrier one in Heat 7, Williamson was happier, even though Boots Properties Racing Pty (Mick) does have a slot in ‘The Velocity’ on Show Day up his sleeve as well and/or in case?!
Would Beside Me’s connections be interested in teaming up for that you think?
What a few weeks in store eh? …
That recent performers in both the Harness Million and Caduceus Club Classic are listed as possibles rather than probables for the Dunstan Horsefeeds Series Final on Show Day presents a solvable—but very real—conundrum for their connections this weekend.
Wat Next has the whole field covered on the stakes-won sheet thanks to her NZB Standardbred Harness Million victory on October 10. But that won’t hold any weight if the Purdon-trained filly comes up short of at least Top 3 place money in the last heat (4) of the Sires Stakes Series for two-year-old pacing fillies.
Lizzie Borden brought her best game to the Caduceus Club Classic Series—bolting through the prelude in Christchurch so well she was sent on a dash to Auckland for the final, where she finished a brave second.
Then she bee-lined it back home, trying to stamp a Sires Stakes Final ticket a fortnight later. Only… that didn’t go to plan.
The Woodlands-bred and syndicated filly finished in the backwash on a wet night and now needs her class—and a touch of luck—to prevail on Monday.
There’ll be a tight (UK?) squeeze on the Cool For Cats bandcamp this week too!
The Group 2 winning filly in the Delightful Lady Classic back in autumn has dropped off the form charts so far this spring but gave a hint of a comeback with a fourth-place finish in her Harness Million division.
It’s the same deal for Miki’s Deal…
Also, a Group 2 winner earlier this year, the Southland filly has been close enough without threatening this spring.
She lacked the dash of her provincial pal Indulge Me in the most recent series heat (3) but her overall form suggests she can make her presence felt—if the cards fall her way in Ash Vegas!
It’s hard to fathom a Woodlands Series Final on Cup Day without a slot for:
Incentivise had heads shaking and tongues wagging when he jogged 2000 metres in a national age-group and track record around the Oamaru circuit on Juvenile Stakes and Hannon Memorial Day.
Expectations were sky-high for his next outing at Sires’ Stakes level—but he was smoked in Heat 4 of the elite Woodlands Series by another aptly named speed machine, Fugitive, and Sapling Stakes victor Allamericanplayer.
Kentuckiana Racing clearly think enough of Eun Sugno to quickly come up with the cash to purchase him from the dissolving TAB Racing Syndicate—and got an instant return ($30k) with his swashbuckling second to the unbeaten Jumal in the Harness Million!
Although he’s committed to ‘the Fugitive’, Carter Dalgety has high hopes in future for ‘the Italian dream’.
“Eun Sogno has it all in front of him. What he lacks now will come in bucket loads next year so anything this time is a massive bonus with him.”
Sounds like Carts is ready to jump in the sulky sooner than later there.
His stablemate Freeze Frame ran a meritorious fourth in the same race but, like the other two, will be running for his Sires Stakes life at Ashburton.
Will they find a way out of the woods and into the Woodlands Series Final?
Can hardly wait to see…
