{"id":229897,"date":"2025-07-01T17:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/229897\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:52:16","slug":"cleese-returning-to-racing-at-arawa-park-after-nine-month-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/229897\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleese returning to racing at Arawa Park after nine-month break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHe will be a bit fresh, of course, but he hasn\u2019t run a bad race in his life and I am very pleased to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">Cleese was set to lumber 61.5kg but will get some weight relief courtesy of apprentice jockey Sam McNab\u2019s 4kg claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">Bell has yet to map out the rest of Cleese\u2019s preparation and said Wednesday\u2019s performance will dictate his next target.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe will get through this one and assess his fitness as to where we head,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will take it race by race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">Looking ahead to the weekend, Bell will have just one runner at Te Rapa on Saturday but has yet to decide which race they will target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">Ata Rangi is dual nominated for the OTL Group LTD Hurdle (2800m) and John Young Family 2400, but he said retirement is looming for the 9-year-old gelding with the lack of jumping opportunities available to him now he has won his maiden hurdle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have him in the hurdle but he is going to come up against horses that have won five or six races, so that doesn\u2019t thrill me at all,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI am looking for a 0-1 or 0-2 hurdle, which they don\u2019t have anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Discover more<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have got him in the 2400m as well. If we can\u2019t get suitable races for jumping, he will probably be retired.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MqOFBmZdIjHJnQ\" style=\"display:none\"><b>\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe will be a bit fresh, of course, but he hasn\u2019t run a bad race in his life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[90461,14120,37093,90456,7747,52757,276,90455,48766,4923,90458,51694,24847,50449,90459,20996,45417,90457,1687,22015,1071,42399,90460,79,40881,6093,16,15,7038,36292,9985],"class_list":{"0":"post-229897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-90461","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-appearance","11":"tag-arawa","12":"tag-at","13":"tag-break","14":"tag-cambridge","15":"tag-cleese","16":"tag-contest","17":"tag-first","18":"tag-gelding","19":"tag-heads","20":"tag-hotel","21":"tag-make","22":"tag-months","23":"tag-more","24":"tag-nine","25":"tag-ninemonth","26":"tag-park","27":"tag-races","28":"tag-racing","29":"tag-returning","30":"tag-rotorua","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-than","33":"tag-to","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-wednesday","37":"tag-when","38":"tag-will"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114779255213601095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}