\u201cHe is a real character and loves a trip away as he just puts his head down and eats everything you put in front of him, so the whole journey to Wellington and back, along with the race will be perfect for him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Once safely through Saturday, Gerard is eyeing the $1.5 million TAB Karaka Millions 3YO at Ellerslie on January 24 followed by the $4m NZB Kiwi (1500m) on March 7, when Romanoff will take up the Canterbury Jockey Club slot he secured with his 2000 Guineas victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as he pulls up well on Saturday he will then go straight to the Karaka Million and then into the NZB Kiwi,\u201d Gerard said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe key will be to keep him fresh enough while also getting the miles into his legs that he needs, so it is likely he will have an exhibition gallop or similar between those two races. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has earned his chance at those races and having a runner with a decent chance is what racing is all about.\u201d <\/p>\n
The second member of Gerard\u2019s Trentham team is last season\u2019s Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) runner-up Dubai Gold, who will tackle the Group 3 Ron Stanley Memorial Phar Lap Stakes (1600m). <\/p>\n
Gerard said she has been struggling to find appropriate races for the 4-year-old mare after the first two starts in her current campaign. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe trialled really well before her first-up run at Counties back in November but then everything went wrong during the race where she got trapped wide throughout,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe really wanted to see where she stood at weight-for-age against the best fillies and mares so we rolled the dice and ran her second up at Te Rapa in the Cal Isuzu [Group 2, 1600m] where she just got outsprinted in the closing stages, while she was also feeling the hard track a little. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat has convinced me she really is a better mare in the autumn as that was where she excelled last season when there was some cut in the tracks. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been tough to find a suitable race for her, but the pieces have fallen into place for Trentham as they have had a bit of rain. She loves the track and she really impressed me this week with her work. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe has dappled up nicely so we decided on Friday morning to send her south and I\u2019m hoping that is the right decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf she goes well we can go back for the Remutaka Classic [$350,000, 2100m] on the 31st [of January] and then look again at what is available after that. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is still on her learning curve and we know if she comes up like she did last year then there is always Brisbane in the winter as an option.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last start maiden winner Dragon Blossom rounds out Gerard\u2019s Trentham team and is tipped as a strong chance in the Blue Star Group 1600. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is flying and while she took a long time to win a maiden she had been running in very strong fields without much luck,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is only small but she is tough and has been to Trentham before and gone a cracker, so I\u2019m hoping she can do the same again on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe is a real character and loves a trip away as he just puts his head down and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4915,4731,6095,5071,8490,106,78,661,16768,2374,111,139,69,1118,4993,129968,8810,6926,8466,40249,1240,213,7187,1529,1865,8489,110477,8982,1533,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-214961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-classic","9":"tag-days","10":"tag-engaged","11":"tag-feature","12":"tag-gerard","13":"tag-head","14":"tag-in","15":"tag-major","16":"tag-matamata","17":"tag-meeting","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-of","22":"tag-quality","23":"tag-romanoff","24":"tag-runners","25":"tag-season","26":"tag-second","27":"tag-seeking","28":"tag-south","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-team","31":"tag-three","32":"tag-today","33":"tag-trainer","34":"tag-trentham","35":"tag-victory","36":"tag-will","37":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}