Race favourite Our Bandit’s prospects of starting in the $100,000 Winter Cup at Riccarton next weekend are purely in the hands of the weather gods.
The weather has already had an impact on the talented Peter McKenzie trained galloper’s preparation for the race, most recently with the moving of today’s meeting at Otaki to Awapuni on Monday.
The re-scheduling now makes for a busy week for Our Bandit if the horse is to race on Monday, travel South during next week and race again in the Riccarton feature on Saturday.
Making things even trickier, the horse’s lead up to the Winter Cup has also been hampered with McKenzie being forced to opt out of a lead up race at New Plymouth last weekend as well as flooding interrupting the horse’s work at his Levin base.
Despite all of those challenges, the $5 equal fixed odds favourite for the race with the Tommy Beckett trained Miss Three Stars, is still on track to start at Riccarton next weekend if he comes through Monday’s race well.
‘’He has missed two races … so, he would have had to have a damn good gallop anyway, so he can have the race on Monday,’’ McKenzie said.
Rather than the weather impacting the horse’s fitness, the trainer’s main concern is the weather that may impact the horse’s ferry trip across Cook Strait to get to Riccarton, next week.
‘’If at this point in time if you wanted to cross the strait, with the weather, you wouldn’t get across so it is a matter of waiting and seeing what the weather is like in the first few days of the week.’’
‘’In the perfect weather, we will get across on Tuesday night and get down there on Wednesday.’’
Wet weather is also playing havoc with the final makeup of the next weekend’s Winter Cup for Southern based contenders.
At Timaru tomorrow Strolling Vagabond will aim to qualify for the event in race 2, while Lord Sibsford will do the same in race 5.
The pair were due to race at Oamaru last weekend before that meeting was eventually abandoned, as well as being down to race at Timaru on Friday before the meeting was postponed until tomorrow.
Wingatui rider Courtney Barnes has picked up the ride on northerner, Strolling Vagabond, while Lord Sibsford reunites with Alysha Collett.
Collett scored on the progressive Sean Cameron trained 4yr-old at Oamaru last month before Dylan Turner won on the horse at Ashburton earlier this month.
Next weekend’s Winter Cup is shadowed by the ambitious long-range plans Cameron has for the horse.
“I really like him, he keeps stepping up and after every race his attitude improves,” he said.
“He’s a very mature horse and nothing fazes him.”
“He just keeps getting better and better and I’d love to see him in the Singapore Derby next year, I’d have to give him away for that, but I’m trying to do the best for my owner.”
Additional reporting NZ Racing Desk.
