Te Akau NZ Ellerslie Preview

Te Akau New Zealand has two horses entered for the nine-race programme on Saturday Feb. 15 at Ellerslie.

As on Friday Feb. 14 the conditions were: overcast and Good3, rail out 8 metres.

3:00pm R5 10 Tiara (3 f O'Reilly - Royal Lady) - Matt Cameron; appeared a filly ready to step up in distance when working home for fifth on Jan. 22 in the Benchmark 65 1600 metres at Te Rapa, and gets her chance here over 2100 metres. Two starts ago she came from last on a competitive pace, weaving through near the rail with a massive run to win the Maiden 1600 metres on Jan. 2 at Tauranga. Her grand-dam Royal Tiara (Blanco) won the 1995 Auckland Cup (Gr. 1, 3200m) and her dam, Royal Lady (Stravinsky), recorded her five wins around 2000 metres.

3:36pm R6 5 Chambord (3 g Zabeel - Miss Montjeu) - Matt Cameron; met a check nearing the home turn, when back in the field, and never got into proceedings on Feb. 1 in the Waikato Guineas (Gr. 2, 2000m) at Te Rapa. Prior to, he mounted the run of a likely winner before a gap closed and he finished an unlucky sixth on Jan. 18 in the Levin Classic (Gr. 1, 1600m) at Trentham, after overcoming a bad check near the home turn, and again mid-straight, before finding the line for third here on Boxing Day in the Great Northern Guineas (Gr. 2, 1600m). He has shown to be among the best of his age and despite a wide barrier in the Avondale Guineas (Gr. 2, 2100m) deserves a chance to defuse his last start performance.