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Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards will rely on a small team at Otaki on Thursday to extend their lead in the national trainers’ premiership.
The Matamata duo are sitting on 93 winners for the season and are six clear of the current champion pairing of Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.
Autridge and Richards look to have two strong chances in the last-start winners Interstellar (Ferlax @ Haunui Farm Handicap) and Royal Success (Otaki Fire Brigade 25th NZFS Snooker Nationals Handicap) to advance their tally.“Interstellar came through her last run well and we’re pretty happy with her,” Autridge said.
“The question mark is how heavy she can handle it so we’ll find out.”The half-sister to the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks winner Savaria returned from bone chip surgery for a first-up win at Wanganui earlier this month and confirmed the promise she showed during her first preparation.
Interstellar won her maiden at Taupo in the spring and a race in which the subsequent Group winner Capella finished fourth.“The form around her is all pretty good,” Autridge said.
Royal Success was a dominant maiden winner at Pukekohe and a bright future has been tipped for the three-year-old.“He’s going to continue to improve and next time in he’ll be a good horse,” Autridge said.
The stable will also be represented at Otaki by Niamh Elizabeth (Riverstone Café Maiden), who may show improvement on a wetter track, and I See Fire (Clark & Co Reality Maiden), who has placed in three of her last four starts.“She shows enough to be winning races, but she’s lacking a bit of commitment,” Autridge said. “She’s been jumping a few hurdles for something different and she might go to Christchurch after this for a couple of races.”