Following a wet Queensland campaign, Te Akau pair Entriviere and Soprano Supreme are heading home to New Zealand for a winter break.
Both mares went well first-up in Australia, Entriviere placing in the Gr.1 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) and Soprano Supreme finishing runner-up in the Gold Coast Cup (2400m).
However, those runs on Heavy tracks took its toll, with the pair disappointing at Eagle Farm on Saturday with Entriviere 11th in the Gr.1 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) and Soprano Supreme 10th in the Gr.3 Premier’s Cup (2400m).
Trainer Mark Walker was pleased with Entriviere’s first-up run and will now look to the spring with the Group One winner.
“She is a Group Two winner in Australia so it was good to get the Group One placing,” he said.
“Like a few other horses that had raced on that Gold Coast and Eagle Farm heavy track, they didn’t seem to back up.
“I think that first run on the heavy track might have flattened her a bit.
“It was a slowly run race on Saturday and the first two around the corner were the first two home.
“We have had torrential wet weather so we are just going to pull the pin and bring her home.
Walker has made the same decision with stablemate Soprano Supreme.
“She raced so well first-up but it was the same thing – that first-up run on such a Heavy track flattened her, I think,” he said.
“We will look to bring her home as well.
“I am going to give them a short spell, see how they come back and map it out from there.”
Te Akau campaigned a trio of runners over the Queensland Winter Carnival, with the stable’s other runner, Sword Of State, beaten a nose in the Gr.3 Gold Coast Guineas (1200m).
The Snitzel colt spiked a temperature and was subsequently treated with antibiotics, forcing him to miss the Gr.1 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m), with the Group One winner now joining the Cambridge Stud stallion roster.