The $400,000 Proisir has a lot of moving parts and more big-name horses than just about any season launcher in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n
Any one of eight or even 10 horses could win it without surprising, as tempo and trips could decide one of the very rare Group 1s to ever be run over 1400m at Ellerslie.<\/p>\n
It will be the highlight of a meeting that feels like not only a starting point for the new season but a collective sigh of relief from the racing community that they survived the long, cold haul of winter racing.<\/p>\n
While the big boys and girls of weight-for-age are our equine movie stars there are plenty of exciting support acts in the two 3-year-old races today, none more so than Hostility (R6, No.2).<\/p>\n
From the time he smashed the record when purchased by Te Akau\u2019s David Ellis last November, he had a lot to live up to.<\/p>\n
And while he is still a maiden he has already run second in the Group 1 Sires\u2019 Produce Stakes, so his talent is undoubted.<\/p>\n
That is one reason he is the early favourite for this season\u2019s 2000 Guineas, with regular rider Opie Bosson\u2019s glowing reports on the colt also adding to the hype.<\/p>\n
Because he has a big reputation and stride to match, it was slightly underwhelming to see him only fourth in his first trial of this campaign and then need to be ridden out a touch to win his second trial at Ellerslie last week.<\/p>\n
Which is why trainer Sam Bergerson reached into the gear bag for blinkers for Hostility today.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was probably a horse who was always going to end up wearing them because he is so laid back but I didn\u2019t think we would go for them this early,\u201d says Bergerson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a colt and just way too casual and we think the blinkers will wake him up and being 1200m they will go quick enough this week that he won\u2019t have time to over-race in them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how good he is, so it is just us getting his mind on the job nice and early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Akau, like many stables, will often use the addition of blinkers as a \u201cturbo button\u201d for horses, leaving them off at the trials but applying them raceday when they want to tell their horse it is time to go to work.<\/p>\n
Usually it works and if it does today, Hostility\u2019s $2.70 (boosted to $2.90) will seem fair, albeit from a slightly sticky barrier.<\/p>\n
Bergerson thinks stablemate He Who Dares can use barrier 1 in the same race, so he has some each way or saver bet appeal on a day when the stable have plenty of winning chances but are staying realistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of ours could win but it is such a great meeting we could go home without winning a race, although that is not the plan,\u201d smiles Bergerson.<\/p>\n
He opts for the TAB Racing Club-owned In Haste (R7, No.2) as their logical best chance in the $150,000 Gold Trail Stakes but admits both Quintessa and Qali Al Farrasha face huge tasks because of their draws or distance concerns respectively in the Proisir Plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plenty of other winning chances like Cool N Fast, Carsolio and Age Of Discovery, who I think can be a real improver this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole team is well but it is really hard racing and a lot will come down to who gets the luck.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Te Akau team\u2019s Australian stable line up La Dorada against fellow Kiwi flyer and favourite Alabama Lass in the A$750,000 Moir Stakes at The Valley at 6.50pm (NZ time).<\/p>\n
\u201cWith her wide draw and the fact she is only a three-year-old taking on weight-for-age I\u2019d say we would be thrilled with a top 5 finish.\u201d<\/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.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The $400,000 Proisir has a lot of moving parts and more big-name horses than just about any season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[27616,30973,16351,51881,1071,138330,26335,79,40326,8746,16,15,9987,18801],"class_list":{"0":"post-400875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-as","9":"tag-call","10":"tag-colt","11":"tag-gets","12":"tag-racing","13":"tag-recordbreaking","14":"tag-return","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-superstars","17":"tag-today","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-up","21":"tag-wake"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115153604838696274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400875","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=400875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}