Horse racing: Cambridge trainers spring Oaks surprise to boost Kiwi team
Solid Gold (left) is backing up in the Queensland Oaks on Saturday. Photo / Kenton Wright
Kiwi trainer Roger James is going to do something very un-Roger James-like with 3-year-old filly Solid Gold this Saturday.
Because she will back up in the A$700,000 Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm in Brisbane, just seven days after failing in the Queensland Derby at the same venue.
Solid Gold finished fifth as favourite in the Derby against the 3-year-old boys four days ago and would usually be heading for the paddock after such a tough 2400m Group 1 race.
But James and training partner Robert Wellwood have sprung a surprise by electing to line her up in the Oaks over a 2200m instead.
The Cambridge trainers are known for their measured and methodical planning of their 3-year-olds’ campaigns, something that has paid huge dividends with James having trained eight Derby winners.
But he says while he was initially disappointed with Solid Gold’s fifth last Saturday, after watching the replay on television, he was more comfortable with it.
“I am old school and still watch the races through my binoculars,” James said.
“Watching it live like that, I thought she was a bit weak at the finish but when I watched the replay on television later, I came away with a different perspective.
“I gave me more idea of how hard she worked early to get a spot and then how the tempo increased just when she was trying to button off for a while.
“Then Tommy [Berry, jockey] had to pull her out earlier than he wanted and she only battled late, but the more I look at it, the more I realise what she did early took its toll.
“We weren’t unhappy with Tommy’s ride at all, it was just the wide draw that made it too hard for her.”
With Solid Gold having bounced out of the Derby well, she will take her place in the Oaks field and has drawn ideally at barrier 4, ending a run of dreadful draws for the James/Wellwood stable reps in Australia through the autumn.
“Because she is so fit, she won’t need to do any real work this week and this will be her last run of the campaign and is a Group 1 so there are some really good reasons to give her a second chance,” James said.
While Solid Gold finally gets a economical draw on Saturday, the other fillies with Kiwi connections in the Oaks do not.
Trainer Andrew Forsman’s wish of a good draw with Single Red went pear-shaped when she drew barrier 21, which even with the emergencies coming out leaves her facing a mammoth task.
The one-time favourite for the Oaks, she is now an $11 chance.
The Sir Peter Vela-owned filly Chispa cops barrier 20 and will have Jamie Melham aboard as James McDonald, who was to have partnered her, is suspended this week.
“It is a real shame because I would love to have ridden her for Sir Peter and she is a good staying filly but her draw won’t help much,” McDonald said.
Last-start South Australian Classic winner Fringes, part-owned by well known New Zealand racing photographer Trish Dunell, draws barrier 16.
While three of the four New Zealand-connected fillies have drawn wide in the Oaks, they still have more chance of winning than New Zealand galloper Jimmysstar does in next week’s Stradbroke Handicap.
The top-flight sprinter was pulled out of the Stradbroke yesterday, with his connections preferring to give him a spell now and prepare for the spring rather than ask him to carry the 58.5kg topweight on Saturday week.
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.