16 December 2009
Te Awamutu trainer Brent Gillovic announced on Wednesday his decision to start exciting racemare Wealth Princess in the $45,000 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.
And her performance in that race will determine whether the unbeaten four-year-old mare takes her place in the field for the first of the summer’s Group 1 sprint features, the $200,000 Railway Handicap (1200m), at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day (January 1).
Gillovic has been tossing around the various racing options for Wealth Princess since her sensational last-to-first record-breaking win in the rating 90 race at Te Rapa last Saturday. That represented her fourth easy win in as many starts.
“We will be guided on her prospects of running in the Railway by her performance in the Newmarket Handicap,” said Gillovic. The other major Group 1 sprint under consideration for Wealth Princess is the Group 1 $1 million Telegraph Handicap (1200m) at Trentham on January 23.
In posting a new track record last Saturday Wealth Princess overcame a recent trend at Te Rapa.
Since the Te Rapa course has been sand-slitted such fast times have virtually become a thing of the past.
The only course record this decade was when the Group 1 winning Kindacross clocked 57.23 for 1000m in December 2004, reported the NZ Herald.
The previous record at Te Rapa was Promise Me running 1200m in 1:08.81 in 1995. On Saturday Wealth Princess bettered that record when she posted a smart time of 1:08.59.
She not only posted another breath-taking win but she achieved it with ridiculous ease - and could have been excused for suffering her first defeat after such a slow beginning from the barrier.
Instead Wealth Princess produced a stunning last-to-first performance, with a track record into the bargain and lengths to spare at the finish. In the home straight she went past her rivals like they were standing still.
"I could have won by five lengths if I'd wanted to," said experienced jockey David Walsh, who has ridden Wealth Princess in each of her four races.
"And she really hasn’t got much idea of what she's doing yet," said Walsh.
"She steps up [in class] each time she goes to the races and wins just as easily."
On paper, the Railway Handicap at Ellerslie on January 1 would seem the perfect next target for Wealth Princess but it may not be.
As much as Wealth Princess has got away with her lack or ringcraft down in the grades and again on Saturday, in the Railway there is nowhere to hide if you make just one wrong mistake and the fact that she hasn’t gone right-handed yet could be a concern. The Newmarket will provide some telling answers.
Wealth Princess is raced by Chinese businessman Victor Ngai whom Gillovic said was keen to keep his mare in New Zealand to race and with a view that one day she may produce a colt who could go on to become a stallion at stud in this country.
The San Luis mare's slow start at Te Rapa last Saturday was completely out of character.
"She took one funny step just before they let them go and she missed it," said Walsh.
"I stayed back last because there was a fair bit of pace on and I didn't want to go around them even though it was a small field.”
