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Mark Oulaghan is hoping that with talented stayer Guarantor his cups might runneth over in the next 10 days.
The Palmerston North trainer will produce his Listed Kaimai Stakes winner in Saturday's Listed Fasttrackinsurance Hawke's Bay Cup (2200m) at Hastings, hoping the Howbaddouwantit gelding might do enough to convince him he's worthy of a trip to Riccarton for the Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup (2000m) seven days later.
Oulaghan is mindful that Guarantor's best form has been on dead tracks and with the onset of more rain-affected tracks that autumn and winter brings, he wants to make the most of the better tracks while he can.“He's more a better-track horse so we'll be influenced by the tracks in just how much further we go with him,” he said.
“If he went a really good race on Saturday, we'd think about heading down for the Canterbury Gold Cup a week later.”“He's been a big weak horse until this preparation, but he's really hit his straps over the last six months. He's always shown plenty but initially he was a bit disappointing and I thought he was entitled to go a fraction better than what he did, but he's starting to really come to it now."
Guarantor racked up his third win on the corresponding day last year, scoring by three-quarters of a length in a 2500m Rating 75 event.He finished second in the Summer Cup at Trentham in January before successive wins at Te Rapa and then the Kaimai Stakes at Matamata, leading to his last-start failure in the Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie.
“It was an up-and-down run. He's never gone any good when he's led early. He's a better horse ridden back and left alone to run on late. I know there was no speed in the Auckland Cup, but that's just more his go.”Oulaghan hasn't raced Guarantor since the Auckland Cup, meaning the six-year-old goes into the Hastings feature without racing for five weeks but that's of little concern to the trainer.
“He's had a couple of decent gallops and he seems pretty well at the moment. I'm expecting him to go well,” Oulaghan said.