Go the Girls

The Informant reports on the line up for the Listed $50,000 Ray Coupland Stakes on Saturday at Ashburton which features two Te Akau fillies.

Can they add to Te Akau's stunning record of wins in this race in the past decade:  King's Chapel, Sea Saint, Princess Coup, Corsage (subsequently relegated), King's Rose, Abidewithme and Costa Viva (who quinellaed the race with Chambord last year - Rock 'n' Pop was also runner up in his 3YO season)?

All but two of the candidates for the Listed Ray Coupland Stakes at Ashburton tomorrow (Saturday) will be racing over 1400 metres for the first time and while that will be an issue, a bigger factor in the result is likely to be proven class.

Riding Shotgun might be the winner of only one race and at 1100 metres but his more than $200,000 in stakes has been helped by regularly mixing it with the likes of Vespa and O'Marilyn, including splitting them when second in the Karaka Million. None of his opponents tomorrow can make those claims.

His trainer Leo Molloy said health-wise, Riding Shotgun is 100 per cent after corrective surgery at the end of the season and being gelded in September, but has probably not improved from two to three as much as some of his opposition.

“He looks trim and athletic but hasn't progressed physically,” Molloy said.

Gelded after his third to Vespa and Copy Watch in the Westbury Stud Challenge Stakes at Ruakaka, Riding Shotgun returned to the northern track 10 days ago for a trial and is still on the 'way up'. Rosie Myers went up to ride him in the trial and stays on board for tomorrow.

“The girls seemed to get on with him, he relaxed for them and will need to be put to sleep from one to get the 1400.”

Te Akau fillies Flaming and Darci's Dream look like providing the most opposition. The stable is aiming for a back-to-back Ray Coupland Stakes quinella, Costa Viva having beaten Chambord by half a length in 1:21.13 a year ago.

Like Riding Shotgun, Flaming has won only once, over 1200 metres at two. Her only race this season was in the Hawkes Bay Breeders' Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings on September 20 and what a run it was.

Taken back to second-last from the outside draw and still there, hopelessly placed on the turn, Flaming roared home for second within a length of class filly O'Marilyn. The race was run in 1:10.38 and the finish of Flaming suggested 1400 metres will hold no fears tomorrow.

Darci's Dream ran 1:10.73 down the 1200-metre Riccarton Park chute to win the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes at her most recent outing. She has won three and been placed beyond 1200 metres, finishing second over 1300 metres at Ellerslie in March and then stepped up to 1600 metre in the Listed Champagne Stakes.

At the end of a long campaign Darci's Dream was unplaced and put aside. Tomorrow's field will be the strongest she has come up against this season, although she has met and beaten Molloy's useful filly Consensus in both her outings.

The top-rated South Islanders in the line-up are the two southern fillies Belle Miraaj and Elusive Catch, but neither has been successful on a track rated good.

The first of the hat-trick for Belle Miraaj was on a Slow8 and the others on a Dead6, and she hasn't raced beyond 1100 metres. Belle Miraaj beat five runners impressively over 1000 metres on a heavy track at the Wyndham workouts on October 5 and followed that with an exhibition gallop at Winton last Sunday, pleasing her trainer Gay Robinson.

Elusive Catch struck only dead or heavy tracks in her successful juvenile career and wasn't as competitive on the Good3 surface in the Canterbury Belle Stakes. She also lined up in the exhibition gallop at Winton, along with Sucre, and the trio ran home from the 800 in 49 seconds.

Taranaki filly Second Time Lucky won the Welcome Stakes on a Good3 track at last year's New Zealand Cup carnival and is capable of better than she managed in the Canterbury Belle Stakes after not getting the best of runs.

The Myers representative Karalli, unbeaten in two trials and one race on tracks rated slow or heavy, has been nominated for the New Zealand Bloodstock 1000 Guineas and her chances tomorrow can't be ignored.