Punters scanning the field for today’s A$1 million Toorak Handicap at Caulfield could be
excused for thinking they had mistakenly picked up a couple of racebooks from last season back here in New Zealand.
Because today’s Group 1 mile is stacked with former New Zealand gallopers, including plenty who have starred at the highest level here in the last 12 months.
Three of the 11 starters won major races when trained in New Zealand but have now all moved across the Tasman, although Karaka Million and NZB Kiwi winner Damask Rose could still return home at some stage.
She is joined in today’s handicap by former Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic winner Desert Lightning and last season’s NZB Filly of the Year heroine Leica Lucy.
Last season’s NZ Derby winner Willydoit was in the field but has been scratched and will instead run in today’s Alan Brown Stakes at Rosehill against New Zealand-bred topweight Gringotts.
The Kiwi connection runs even deeper as Evaporate is the NZ-bred and part-owned gelding who finished second to Damask Rose in the inaugural NZB Kiwi in March, while Feroce is one of the pin-up boys of the 2023 Karaka Ready To Run sales after his consistent form at the highest level in the past year.
Even with so many New Zealand-bred or owned horses heading across the Tasman these days, such a deep Kiwi representation in a Group 1 mile is still rare. Most are given at least an each-way chance, with Desert Lightning’s 59kg topweight meaning he is the least favoured.
Co-trainer Mark Walker says he is thrilled Damask Rose has finally got a good draw this campaign, but hopes rain predicted for later today arrives sooner than forecast.
“I think she shows her best on a soft 5-6 and, if it gets to that today and we get a little bit of sting out of the ground, that would help her.”
How mares such as Damask Rose and Leica Lucy perform is important, he says, because so few New Zealand-trained or even formerly-trained horses are winning Group 1s in Australia.
“It is important we start having our horses who have won good races back home come here and do well for the credibility and ratings of our New Zealand group races.”
If Damask Rose shows her best today, she could be over the odds at $15 as she only has 54kg, with Jamie Melham doing the riding.
The Toorak is the most Kiwi-centric race on a super-strong Caulfield Guineas Day. The 3-year-old feature itself also has a New Zealand angle with Vega For Luck having finished second to La Dorada in the Karaka Millions Juvenile back in January.
Closer to home, Walker and his training partner in Te Akau’s Trans Tasman business, Sam Bergerson, hold a strong hand at the Ashburton meeting, which is the highlight of a quieter domestic racing day.
They have three reps in the $100,000 Barneswood Farms Stakes for 3-year-olds, and Walker can’t split Belle Du Monde or Origin Of Love, even though the latter only won her maiden last start.
“She was tough winning that day and, while all of ours have a chance, I’ve actually been really impressed with one of their rivals, Miss Starlight,” says Walker.
“John and Karen Parsons have got a really nice filly there, and we might all be flat beating her.”
The Ashburton card also boasts a good sprint race and the Ashburton Cup over 1600m, so it acts as an important southern springboard to New Zealand Cup week, now less than a month away.
The Ōtaki meeting hosts the $120,000 Spring Sprint with plenty of group horses, and The Scunner (R7, No 10) looks the value option.
But punters should heed the now-weekly spring warning about consulting the track conditions on race morning before getting involved.
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.