Sacred Star primed for big G1 Telegraph run after 3 trials
The eight-year-old will resume in Saturday’s Group 1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) after Tony Pike was forced to take the Flying Spur gelding out of the Group 1 Railway (1200m) on New Year’s Day due to the wet ground.
“It was unfortunate, the rain seems to follow him wherever he goes and there’s not that many races to suit him,” the Cambridge conditioner said. “Hopefully, he gets a good track this time.”
Sacred Star has an excellent record when fresh and Pike is confident of a bold showing at the weekend.
“He hasn’t run for a long time, but he’s had three barrier trials and he’s ready to run a race,” he said.
Sacred Star won the Telegraph three years ago and subsequently added the Group 1 NRM Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa to earn him the champion New Zealand sprinter title for the 2014-15 season.
Pike will have a strong team at the Wellington meeting with Magic Chai in the Group 3 Wallaceville Estate Wellington Cup (3200m) and the exciting Jasd, Morweka and Poppy Star in supporting events.
“The query with Magic Chai may be the two miles, but his last three runs over 2200m have all been super,” he said.
“He was a bit tripped up by the track at Ellerslie last time so it was a brave effort to run third.
“He’s trained on well and drops to the minimum on Saturday and it doesn’t look the strongest field.”
Jasd was an impressive debut winner at Taupo last month and Pike expects him to take some beating in the Harrisons Carpets & Curtains Premier (1400m).
“He’s bred to get over a bit of ground and if he won really well on Saturday we’ll probably look for a mile for him and then maybe one of the Guineas races,” he said