Wize Act could be the fresh filly on the scene to end the feature race dominance of stablemates Residential and Starvoia at Wingatui today.
Riccarton trainer Terri Rae has Wize Act aimed at race 10, today’s $50,000 listed level feature for 3yr-old fillies.
To win, Wize Act must break the quinella-making run of John and Karen Parsons’ fillies Residential and Starvoia who have filled the top two spots in both the Dunedin and Invercargill Guineas in their past two starts.
Wize Act has not had her shot at the pair yet, Rae preferring to aim her charge at the South’s fillies-only features.
‘‘You are just up against the fillies only and being young horses, you can’t do everything.’’
Running into classy horses will not come as any surprise for Wise Act today — she chased home La Diosa and Hall Of Fame in her two starts before she was spelled in the spring.
Wize Act returned from that spell with her first run on the path to her autumn targets, at Riccarton eight days ago.
‘‘She was a touch unlucky, but it was a great fresh-up run. It was her first time with the hood on.’’
Rae certainly rates the Parsons pair as tough to beat, but Wise Act deserves a crack at taking on listed company, today.
"They have been racing really, really well and they will be tough. But we are happy with her and she has done everything right so far, so she gets her chance.’’
Rae is hoping to turn around the luckless run of Riding Shotgun in race 4, today’s open sprint.
The 5yr-old has looked terribly unlucky not to win when being held up and running second in his past two starts.
‘‘He has just been too far back in the field and runs into all sorts of trouble. He has been really unlucky his last two starts.’’
Rae sees Riding Shotgun and Alysha Collett settling handier than he normally does from barrier 4 today.
‘‘He will race a little bit handier. It’s nice when you have got a good draw to go forward and take a bit of bad luck out of the equation.’’
The Riccarton trainer has a small but select team of three chances at today’s meeting, all of who will be ridden by Alysha Collett.
Margarita Mover, who lines up in race 7, comes into today’s race after two thirds at the Wellington Cup carnival in January.
The horse not racing since then is not a concern for the trainer, as she put in those two good runs in a similar state, having not previously started since November.
‘‘Her work has been really good. She has had no trial but she didn’t have going up to Wellington either. She is forward and ready to go.’’
Margarita Mover should also be familiar with carrying today’s hefty 59kg weight. ‘‘She carried weight [at Trentham] as well.’’
• Additional information for meetings today:
M2 Auckland RC
Scratchings
Race 2: Scaglioni, Deebee Perci, Madam Wood.
Race 4: Francaletta.
Weather, fine; track, dead4; rail, true.
M6 Otago RC
Rider
Race 2: Shezatoucha - C Barnes.
Scratchings
Race 1: Sharp ‘N’ Silver.
Race 7: Mr Typhon.
Weather, overcast; track, dead4; rail, true.
M7 Wyndham HRC
Scratchings
Race 1: Jeddy R Ya Ready, Scarlett Lane.
Race 2: Monlea Maisy.
Race 4: L J’s Jet.
Race 8: American Magic.
- By Jonny Turner
