A small but select field looks set to fight out an enthralling Waikouaiti Cup on Monday.
There may be just six runners in the field but they bring plenty of good recent winning form.
The Ken and Lisa Rae and Krystal Williams-trained Kaharau will seek to go one better than his runner-up effort in last year’s race.
The horse comes to this year’s event in much better form than he was in before his effort last year.
"His whole campaign this year has gone to plan. The only time he went no good was at Ashburton," Ken Rae said.
Kaharau backed up his Ashburton failure with a strong win in the Banks Peninsula Cup before running third in the group 3 New Zealand Cup.
"He had two weeks off after that and a week on the walker and he was back to square one.
"I am reasonably confident. Amanda Morgan has been riding a bit of track work for us so she is going to ride him. Her kilo claim should help him, too."
Kaharau has the Kumara Gold Nuggets and the Dunedin Gold Cup on his agenda following Monday’s run.
The Rae and Williams stable has Absolut Excelencia in today’s Kurow Cup.
He, too, was a runner-up in last year’s event.
"He’s going well and we keep him reasonably fresh and stick to the shorter trips with him," Ken Rae said.
Noted frontrunner Come Fly With Me will attempt to keep trainer Stephen Blair-Edie’s hot run of recent form in Monday’s Waikouaiti feature.
The mare has been at the peak of her powers this season, winning three of her seven starts.
In the latest of those, the 7yr-old downed race rival Gallant Boy in the Southland Crystals at Ascot Park earlier this month. There was a 5kg weight difference between them that day, but the pair are weighted together on 57kg in Monday’s race.
Rider Corey Campbell will claim 3kg off the Brian and Shane Anderton-trained galloper.
The horse has also struck some of his best form since resuming this season.
In two starts before his runner-up effort behind Come Fly With Me, Gallant Boy was excellent in winning at Cromwell after running a solid third fresh up at Wingatui.
Wingatui galloper Our Teddy Boy looms as one of the most interesting runners on the Waikouaiti undercard in race 8.
Corey Campbell will also ride The Steve Tyler-trained galloper, who was a brilliant winner fresh up at Timaru before a shock defeat at Wingatui on Melbourne Cup day.
The horse was subsequently found to have been suffering from a virus and was given time to recover.
Tyler is hopeful the horse is now back to his best.
"It was pretty serious. It knocked him, but he seems to have bounced back now.
"He worked very well on [Friday] morning. Corey rode him in a track gallop and he said he felt really good."
Our Teddy Boy’s full sister Our Golden Girl will start for Tyler in race 4.
The 2yr-old’s already light weight of 52kg will drop to 49kg with Campbell also booked to ride the horse. If this year’s Waikouaiti meeting is anything to go by, local racegoers are set to see some galloping stars.
Last year, racing fans started 2017 in style by seeing Patrick Erin, Sensei and First Serve run to impressive victories.
