Tralee Rose making pleasing recovery

New Zealand-bred mare Tralee Rose is recovering well after being injured during the running of the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) last month.

The Symon Wilde-trained five-year-old was galloped on in the Cup, where she finished ninth, and subsequently underwent treatment at Werribee Equine Hospital.

A tilt at the two mile feature is once again the main aim next year and Wilde is eyeing the the Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes (2800m) at Flemington in May, with the winner gaining ballot exemption for the Melbourne Cup.

"She's been through her five-week box rest period of being bandaged and then on to a small yard where we continued to bandage her," Wilde told RSN. 

"Everything went really well. The skin took hold, the stitches held, and she's been now about 10 days in the big paddock. 

"We're not sure whether we'll give her a long break and just focus on the spring or whether she'll come back for a late autumn cameo in something like the Andrew Ramsden." 

Prior to the Melbourne Cup, Tralee Rose had a lucrative spring, placing in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes (1700m), Gr.3 MRC Foundation Cup (2000m) and Gr.3 Bart Cummings (2520m) before winning the Gr.3 Geelong Cup (2400m).

Tralee Rose was purchased by Wilde in partnership with Cameron Cooke Bloodstock for $50,000 out of Cambridge Stud’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft.

 

Odeon looks to pass $1m mark

Odeon will attempt to break the million-dollar barrier at Flemington on Saturday.

The New Zealand-bred son of Zacinto has been a wonderful servant for trainer Simon Zahra, who purchased Odeon after he failed to meet his $120,000 reserve at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.

The eight-year-old gelding has collected A$951,035 in prizemoney for connections, winning seven races from 51 starts from 1400 to 2000m, with his two most recent victories at Listed level.

“We’ll hopefully get him past the million-dollar mark on Saturday, he does go well fresh,” Zahra said ahead of the $130,000 Kennedy Handicap (1400m) where Jamie Mott booked to ride him at 57kg.

Mott has ridden Odeon twice guiding him to victory in the 2017 Mornington Guineas (1600m) and then controversially denied in the stewards’ room in the Listed Port Adelaide Guineas (1800m) at Morphettville a fortnight later.

“We booked Jamie Mott as he’s a heavier-weight rider, he knows the horse from his three-year-old days and I just like the way he rode him, getting him to relax and find the line,” Zahra said.

Odeon has had three jumpouts ahead of his return to the races having not raced since finishing sixth in the Listed Winter Championship Final (1600m) at Flemington on July 3. He galloped over 1000 metres on Tuesday morning, clocking 1:11.72 with his final 400 metres in 25.73 seconds.

“We bypassed the spring with him as he is getting a bit long in the tooth,” Zahra said.

“He’s been in work a while, it’s just taken a bit to get the weight off him. We took him to Werribee last week for a jumpout over 1100m and he trialled up nicely and his piece of work on Tuesday morning was nice.

“We might back him up in the Lord Stakes over 1700m at Caulfield on Boxing Day which he won a couple of years ago as there’s not too many options for him after Saturday.”

 

Ashburton meeting postponed

The Ashburton races scheduled for Thursday have been postponed until Tuesday 21 December.

The RIB (Racing Integrity Board) inspected the track at 3.30pm on Wednesday along with the track manager and found water pooling. 

There has been approximately 30mm of rain on Thursday. The forecast through to mid-morning Thursday is for a further 50mm – 70mm of rain. 

Based on this information and talking to both the club chief executive and South Island trainer representatives it is considered prudent to postpone the meeting for safety reasons. 

The fields will remain the same and all scratchings re-instated. 

 

Whangarei lose popular race meeting 

This week’s announcement that Northland will be the only region in the country that will be left in the red traffic light setting after December 30 will see the Whangarei Racing Club abstain from hosting their usually popular January 6 meeting.

Given the COVID event crowd restrictions applicable for Northland, and the likelihood of travel delays, the Club has decided that the risk to conduct the January 6th race meeting is too great to proceed with the meeting.

NZTR has agreed with that position and to provide greater certainty and opportunities for the public, owners, and industry participants to attend, the meeting will now be held at Rotorua as a Roturua race meeting. 

“The Whangarei Racing Club, like many Northland sports clubs and event businesses has been significantly disadvantaged by the Covid restrictions,” Chairman Mike Beazley said.

“The decision to cancel its biggest attended meeting of the year was made with major disappointment for our local owners, sponsors, trainers, members and the many holiday makers who include the day as part of their vacations.”