Carl Henderson believes he has found an ideal race at Arawa Park on Saturday for his talented mare Jodelin Gal to open her five-year-old season, which will be all about adding to her future value.

While the Te Awamutu trainer is quietly confident of a bold showing, he does expect the daughter of Swiss Ace to benefit from her outing in the Gr.3 Rydges Rotorua Stakes (1400m).

“She might just possibly need a run and you always query whether they are fit enough, but she has always gone well first-up before,” he said.

“She is up in the grades now and the ground has been so hard that I haven’t quite got the mileage into her, but I am very happy with her.

“Her work was very strong this morning so I think she is going to be a fair chance.”

Jodelin Gal is owned by breeders Ross and Corrine Kearney, who also raced her brother Bankers Choice and retained an interest in the son of Mongolian Khan after clients of trans-Tasman trainer Michael Moroney bought the four-year-old.

Bankers Choice ended his New Zealand career from Stephen Marsh’s stable with victory in the Gr.3 Anniversary Handicap (1600m).

He has since taken on strong company in Australia and finished fifth in the Gr.2 Blamey Stakes (1600m), fourth in the Gr.1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) and sixth in the Gr.1 Doncaster Handicap (1600m).

Jodelin Gal has won five of her 13 starts and was given a break after she turned in a solid effort for fifth in the Gr.2 Westbury Classic (1400m).

“It will be a race at a time, but we will be targeting black type for her and she does handle wet ground. If she went really, really well on Saturday, she is an outside chance for Brisbane,” Henderson said.

“We have had a few little niggles with her and we manage those. She is a pretty smart mare and it’s not the strongest field so if she is on her game she will be thereabouts.”

Henderson will also be represented at Arawa Park by the genuine Rua Rocks in the MacMillan Accountants Handicap (1560m).

The four-year-old finished runner-up last month when resuming over this course and distance and has compiled two wins and six placings from his 10 appearances.

“He’s a really honest horse and is tiny, he’s only 15.1h and 400kg, but if they all tried as hard as him then life would be easy,” Henderson said.

“He has improved from his last race when he just came to the end of it the last little bit. He has drawn wide, which didn’t please me, but he will be on speed somewhere.”

Another promising youngster in the racing team is Asmarde, a lightly tried son of Smart Missile who ran second on debut during his opening two-start preparation.

“We have had a few immaturity issues with him and he trialled about six weeks ago and jarred up really badly on the Cambridge track,” Henderson said.

“He has taken a little while to get back, but he galloped with Jodelin Gal this morning and went exceptionally well.

“He’s waiting in the wings and probably needs reasonable ground so we might be running out of time, but his latest work was as good as I’ve ever seen from him. He might trial at Taupo next week and then find a race for him.” – NZ Racing Desk