Hastings’ loss will be Te Rapa’s gain with the well-performed filly Impendabelle to now stay closer to home for her next step toward a Group One target.
Trainer Tony Pike ruled out a start in Saturday’s Gr.2 AHD Animal Health – Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) due to the weather with the focus now turned to a day earlier and the age group event at Te Rapa.
Currently sharing the fourth line of betting at $12 for the Gr.1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m), Impendabelle will make her second three-year-old appearance in the St John’s College Foundation (1200m) on Friday.
“I just don’t want to give her another trip away and run on a heavy track, so we’ll miss the Guineas,” Pike said.
“She’ll stay in at Te Rapa where it’s going to be the first race on Friday so if it comes up a reasonable surface she’ll run there.”
Impendabelle won twice last season, including the Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m), and finished a luckless seventh when resuming earlier this month in the Gr.3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m).
“She was going really well leading into that and I thought she was a proper live chance,” Pike said.
“Unfortunately, she got pole-axed at the start and they went slowly and she ran the quickest last 400 and 200m of the day so she couldn’t have done much more from where she was positioned.
“She ran really well, but obviously had her chances extinguished at the start.”
However, Pike is still likely to have a runner in the Hawke’s Bay Guineas with Overdrawn to fly the stable flag following his resuming sixth in the Listed El Roca – Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m).
“He’s in the field, I don’t think anyone can beat Tokyo Tycoon but our horse has come up really well and he was probably a bit unlucky not to have gone closer to running in the money on the first day,” he said.
“He never really got clear until too late and he has improved a lot off that.
“I think he is a horse that will get through a proper slow track and the three-year-olds off Tokyo Tycoon on the first day at Hastings look pretty even.”
Pike is blessed with a number of other promising youngsters and both Awatere and Full Moon Fever will run in the BCD Group 3YO (1400m) at Te Rapa.
“I’ve left Awatere in both maidens, but the three-year-old race is the preference,” Pike said.
“He is a nice horse going forward and got hammered at the start at Taupo and closed well late and has taken a lot of improvement from that.”
The Per Incanto gelding was on debut there and finished third behind Molly Bloom, the pre-post joint favourite for the New Zealand 1000 Guineas.
U S Navy Flag’s son Full Moon Fever is also lightly raced and has placed in three of his four appearances.
“Unfortunately, they will run against each other at Te Rapa and we’ll see if they put their hands up with the possibility of getting to the better races,” Pike said.
They all hold nominations for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton and the possibility of return flights to Christchurch will be a major advantage should they venture south.
“It will make like a lot easier, but obviously a lot more expensive, if we do decide to go. There is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet to see if they warrant going down there,” Pike said.