Te Rapa race the likely goal for Chicane
The Ross McCarroll-trained Chicane has been dual nominated for both Te Rapa and Hastings meetings on Saturday, but her trainer has opted to run his mare at the former venue in the Punters’ Challenge 5th May 1400m.
“I’ve got another one (Aileen Grace) in the one at Hastings and she’s drawn in (barrier 1) and Chicane is quite well-weighted at Te Rapa as well in the stronger field,” he said.
Leading apprentice jockey Sam Weatherley will take the ride on Saturday where Chicane will carry 54kg and take on a handy field that includes three-time stakes winner Ugo Foscolo.
“It’s a strong field, but a few of them are out of form and I wonder how genuine some of them are,” McCarroll said.
“She’ll probably go forward from her barrier of five with the light weight.”
McCarroll was pleased with Chicane’s latest runner-up performance over 1200m at Matamata and is looking forward to seeing how she performs on Saturday.
“It was a really good run last time, she’s seemed to train on well,” he said.
“She got to the line well and looked like she wanted to go a little further, so hopefully with a lighter weight and a little bit more distance she will make it into a win maybe.”
Meanwhile, stablemate Contraband is likely to resume at Pukekohe next Saturday after being in good form in January, posting a win and a placing from just the two starts.
“He was going to run in the lead-up to the Derby, but it was a bad track, so we turned him out for three weeks,” McCarroll said.
“He’s come up probably even better, so he’s possibly going to run at Pukekohe on Saturday-week.”