Quality mare Entriviere is building towards the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day after a quick turnaround from a successful three-start spring campaign in Sydney.
The Jamie Richards-trained five-year-old has won six of her 10 lifetime starts, and enhanced her value significantly when winning the Gr.2 Sheraco Stakes (1200m) fresh-up in Sydney, to complement a pair of Group Three victories in New Zealand and two Group Two placings in Australia.
Connections of the emerging star will be keen to see her tick the Group One box, as will the punters who have taken the early $2.80 TAB fixed odds quote about the mare winning the Railway.
“She just had a couple of weeks out. She maintained quite a bit of residual fitness from that Australian preparation but we wanted to pull up stumps nice and early to give her the chance to get back for this,” Richards said.
“She will trial at Rotorua on the 13th and then have an exhibition gallop before heading to the Railway fresh-up.”
New Zealand racing fans can look forward to following the top-shelf Te Akau mare through the summer, with the Gr.1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) and Gr.1 BCD Group Sprint (1400m) also on the radar.
“She will stay here for the Telegraph and the BCD Group Sprint at Te Rapa and then we will make a plan from there,” Richards said.
The champion trainer is eyeing a tilt at the Karaka Million 3YO Classic (1600m) with On The Bubbles, who trialled well at Matamata on Monday.
“I think you have got to look at the million-dollar race pretty seriously,” Richards said.
“He will go to Te Rapa on Saturday week for the three-year-old 1200m race and then the Uncle Remus (Listed, 1400m) on Boxing Day. But we are gearing up towards the Karaka Million 3YO Classic.
“I think he will get a mile. Obviously he has a little bit of a wind complaint where we had to tidy up his epiglottis but we will see how it all plays out.”
Richards has short-course targets in mind for multiple Group Two winner Need I Say More, who after being a model of consistency in a three-year-old season that netted five wins, was below par in his two runs in the spring.
“He wouldn’t be the first four-year-old that didn’t come up in the spring after a pretty busy three-year-old campaign,” Richards said.
“We just brought him home and gave him a couple of weeks in the paddock. He is back in now and is going to trial on the 13th as well. I am happy with where he is at and how he is going.
“There is a nice race on Boxing Day at Awapuni that we might get him ready for and then he could well go to the Telegraph after that.”
Meanwhile, Richards has his eye on further Group One spoils for his Guineas winners from Riccarton last month.
Both Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) winner Noverre and Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) winner The Perfect Pink spent a week in the paddock after returning from Christchurch but are now building towards summer features.
"Noverre is back in work. He'll probably go to the Uncle Remus first-up and then we'll make further plans for him," Richards said.
"The Perfect Pink had a week off and she's at Lyndhurst Farm on the water treadmill at the moment and will be back in on Monday.
"She'll build into the Oaks or Derby. That's yet to be decided. She'll probably follow a similar path to what Amarelinha did last year. She'll probably kick off at Ellerslie on the 9th (of January) or Awapuni the day before."