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Smart Mare Side-Lined By Injury
Group One performer Waterford is on the easy list with her immediate future unclear.
“She’s had a pastern injury and it’s 50-50 whether she’ll be back for the spring or summer sprints,” trainer Tony Pike said. “It’s a shame as she’s one of the best mares I’ve trained.”
Stakes placed at two and narrowly beaten when second in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas in her classic year, Waterford won the Listed Counties Bowl last season before she finished runner-up to Bounding in the Gr.1 Railway Stakes.
The Darci Brahma mare has won three of her 13 starts for Pike, who bred and races the four-year-old with his parents Wayne and Vicky.
Meanwhile, former stablemate and the Gr.2 Wellington Guineas winner Sacred Park will do his future racing in Hong Kong.
Weissmuller Lets Himself Down
Opaki trainer Andrew Campbell was left scratching his head after the latest effort of Weissmuller.
The winner of last season’s Gr.3 Wellington Stakes looked back to his best with a first-up win in an open handicap at Te Rapa before he flopped in a Rating 85 event at Hastings.
“He was very ordinary – he over-raced and you just can’t do that,” Campbell said.
“It was frustrating and he never put in so it was disappointing. We’ll put in a cheeky nom for the Foxbridge Plate, but whether he makes the field is another story.”
Ransomed On The Classic Trail Again
Ransomed took another step toward the defence of his Gr.1 Spring Classic title with an outing at Tuesday’s Waverley trials.
Trainer and part-owner Gary Vile was pleased with the gelding’s effort over 1000 metres in the hands of regular rider Johnathon Parkes.
“I was very happy with him and the pulled up well,” he said. “Johnathon said he felt good and he’d had a jump-out at home so that will fit him up for the Makfi.
“If he doesn’t go to the Makfi then we’ll do the same as last year and run him in the open 1200 at Wanganui and he’ll definitely go to the middle day at Hastings before the Spring Classic, that’s his main aim.”