\u201cHe has never really loved Ellerslie but while he can look awkward, George [Rooke, jockey] says it doesn\u2019t affect him that badly,\u201d says Gerard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were really happy with how he went and the Railway is still a possibility but first we will get him home and see how he is in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we will talk and Rick Williams [manager] and Dick [Karreman, owner] and see what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Railway hasn\u2019t always been on Savaglee\u2019s radar, with Gerard suggesting the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa on February 7 will suit him better, but, with that race set to be very strong, Savaglee could probably do with an outing before it to clean out his lungs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he could even go to the Railway obviously hoping to win but also to bring him on for Te Rapa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alabama Lass is definitely heading to the Railway, for which she is the $5 second favourite, after pleasing co-trainer Ken Kelso with her close second to Sterling Express in the second of the 1100m heats.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came home [600m] in just over 33 seconds … did everything she needed to do so we are happy,\u201d says Kelso.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe will have three more gallops before the Railway and Craig [Williams] is confirmed to come over to ride her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelso says Alabama Lass is a better horse now than when she just went down to Crocetti as a 3-year-old in the Railway last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is stronger and not such a tearaway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vegas Queen thrilled trainer Kenny Rae by winning the Savagles trial, capping a busy 24 hours for Rae, who had been at Kumara on Saturday training Illicit Dreams to win the open sprint.<\/p>\n
Vegas Queen heads to the $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic for four-year-olds at the Karaka Millions meeting, with Rae buzzing about having a genuine contender in a seven-figure race.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a good mare and showed last season she can run with these horses and she is an even better horse now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am certain she will get the 1600m of the Aotearoa Classic and I think she will eventually be a 2000m horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been away on the Coast all week and the team up here at home have done a wonderful job with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Aotearoa lacking much proven recent Group 1 form, Vegas Queen is emerging as a serious contender at $8 in the TAB futures.<\/p>\n
Also heading to the Karaka Millions after impressive come-from-behind race wins yesterday will be the Andrew Forsman-trained pair of Stromlinien and Chilling Out.<\/p>\n
Stromlinien never looked likely to win the two-year-old race until Craig Grylls found a late gap and Forsman says with the KM Two-Year-Old open, the daughter of Almanzor will be back at Ellerslie in 12 days for her shot at the big money.<\/p>\n
So too will Chilling Out, who made it two wins in three starts when surging late off a slow tempo to win over 1500m three-year-old like a filly with options.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a real touch of class and I think she could be competitive off a good tempo in the Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old,\u201d says Forsman, who has moved up to fourth on the premiership with a win every six starters.<\/p>\n
Forsman says what Chilling Out does in the KM Three-Year-Old could also determine whether she targets the NZB Kiwi or heads down a New Zealand Oaks path.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s English almost certainly booked himself a start in the Almanzor Trophy, the three-year-old sprint on Karaka Millions night with a determined win yesterday, while Ammirati confirmed himself as the leading New Zealand Derby contender with a brave win in the Gingernuts Salver.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe has never really loved Ellerslie but while he can look awkward, George [Rooke, jockey] says it doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[806,6326,25262,8500,39644,14568,91125,685,2374,32892,4380,9878,21409,111,139,2551,69,90,1562,9831,34592,41570,136303,16487,213,1120,223,107,41402],"class_list":["post-228711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-as","tag-biggest","tag-dress","tag-ellerslie","tag-glamour","tag-horse","tag-karaka","tag-last","tag-meeting","tag-mick","tag-millions","tag-monday","tag-names","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-plenty","tag-question","tag-ready","tag-rehearsal","tag-savaglee","tag-shape","tag-sports","tag-takes","tag-the","tag-then","tag-yesterdays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228711","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=228711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}