{"id":34260,"date":"2025-07-30T20:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34260\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T20:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:38:12","slug":"matt-kelso-and-lass-out-to-restore-new-zealand-training-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34260\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Kelso and lass out to restore New Zealand training pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLegarto is being aimed at the Proisir Plate at Ellerslie on September 6,\u201d says Kelso.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Alabama Lass should have her first start back that day too but in the Moir Stakes at The Valley [Melbourne].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are going to have a bit going on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The challenges include trying to restore New Zealand\u2019s training pride after the season, which finishes today, is a modern-day rarity in that no solely New Zealand-trained horse won a Group 1 in Australia.<\/p>\n

That could be in part due to the fact increased stake money at home kept some of our best and brightest here for almost their entire campaigns.<\/p>\n

However, if you remove parochialism, it is hard to make a creditable list of New Zealand horses who would have been genuine winning chances in any Group 1 in Sydney or Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Savaglee, who finished a brave second in the Group 1 Australian Guineas, clearly could have won at the highest level in Australia and taking a line through his form, Damask Rose could have too.<\/p>\n

But after winning both the Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old and NZB Kiwi at home, the decision not to send her to Australia proved a masterstroke.<\/p>\n

Damask Rose is now at Te Akau\u2019s Cranbourne barn, along with Return To Conquer and La Dorada, so three of our absolute elite youngsters will campaign in Victoria this spring. Labelling them New Zealand-trained during this campaign would be a bit of a stretch, though.<\/p>\n

Alabama Lass may actually be one of the few early spring flag flyers for New Zealand training, even though she was bred in Australia.<\/p>\n

She won the highest-stake race by a New Zealand-trained horse in Australia this season when she took out the A$500,000 ($546,000) World Pool Classic over 1100m at Flemington on March 29, suggesting she is sharp enough for 1000m around The Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moir is in her aim as I think 1000m will suit her fresh-up and if she happens to race well there and come through it well, she could stay on for the Manikato [September 26], but that is likely to be stronger,\u201d says Kelso.<\/p>\n

Alabama Lass isn\u2019t listed in the TAB market for the Moir, although fellow New Zealand females La Dorada and Bellatrix Star both are.<\/p>\n

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Kelso says both his stable stars will have two trials before their September 6 comebacks and he is happy to be taking Legarto to Ellerslie, even though he is not sure she is as suited to the new StrathAyr track there as Alabama Lass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a lovely track and we love taking horses there but she [Legarto] doesn\u2019t seem to like it as much as Alabama Lass does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legarto, of course, has already won a Group 1 for the Kelsos in Australia, having triumphed in the Australian Guineas in 2023.<\/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":"\u201cLegarto is being aimed at the Proisir Plate at Ellerslie on September 6,\u201d says Kelso. \u201cAnd Alabama Lass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[4666,5776,20471,20472,20470,1779,1773,13666,20474,3004,20473,20475,15272,101,11197,1850,15455,438,20477,56,54,55,7352,20476,11552],"class_list":["post-34260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-and","tag-ends","tag-kelso","tag-lass","tag-matt","tag-new","tag-out","tag-plan","tag-pride","tag-racing","tag-restore","tag-right","tag-season","tag-sports","tag-thoroughbred","tag-to","tag-today","tag-training","tag-transtasman","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-which","tag-wrongs","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}