“I was a certainty beaten on a horse called Aurlada in 1981,” he recalls.
“I lost my irons at the 1600m and was run into the rail by another horse and went down a short head and a half length.”
After one of the baddest beats in Great Northern history, Wood says Smug gives him a shot at redemption today.
“I think if the track is a Soft 7, which it is listed as, that will help him,” he explains.
“It is not that he can’t win on a Heavy 10 but he is probably a little better on a Soft surface and a few of the others might be better suited by heavy.
“So if it stays in that soft range I give him a really good chance because he has come through that last-start win well.”
The horse to beat in today’s 6200m war of attrition is undoubtedly Lord Spencer, the Grand National winner last month and who has been the find of the jumping season.
He is 3kg worse off in the weights today compared with his Grand National runner-up Brucie and that could be the nagging doubt for punters taking his $2.50 odds, with weight potentially a deciding factor in this country’s longest race.
While almost all of Lord Spencer’s steeplechase form and wins have been on heavy tracks, he actually won a flat race on a soft track last season, so an improved track today may not be as big a disadvantage to him as his stats would suggest.
One trainer who wanted rain in Te Aroha overnight or today is Raymond Connors, who is blatantly honest about Brucie’s chances.
“He is not a fast horse so if it is heavy it slows the others down and gives him his chance,” says Connors.
Some intrigue has been added, with Christmas crossing the Tasman for trainer Paul Preusker to tackle the race – an extreme rarity.
He only has limited steeplechase experience and was fourth in the Australian Grand National but his form is difficult to line up against the locals.
Big day for leading stable
Te Akau Racing unleashed one of their leading candidates for the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas at Riccarton in November when System Of Play made short work of his rivals at Ellerslie yesterday, one of the leading stable’s four winners on the card.
The unbeaten colt, who had won his only start as a 2-year-old over 1200m at Te Rapa back in April, stepped out as the $1.80 favourite to win the Hello Youmzain – Champion 2nd Season Sire, and he did so in fine style in the hands of Michael McNab.
The son of Ole Kirk enjoyed an economical trip in midfield before being angled into the clear by McNab at the top of the straight. At this stage, speedy filly Grocer’s Girl had the field stretched as she made her bid for glory, however, System Of Play lengthened beautifully to hit the lead at the 100m before striding clear to win by half a length without raising much of a sweat.
Te Akau Racing assistant trainer Reece Trumper was excited with the colt’s return and what lies ahead for him.
“He is a very exciting colt on the way up,” Trumper said.
“He has a lovely temperament, and everything has gone to plan, except the weather, this time around.
“We’ve been in discussions with Michael [McNab] right through and he thought 1400m first-up would be no problems.
“That’s why he is the 2000 Guineas favourite as he is some horse.”
– extra reporting, LoveRacing.nz
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.