Te Akau NZ Te Rapa Preview

Te Akau New Zealand has two horses entered for the nine-race programme on Saturday December 20 at Te Rapa.

As on Thursday December 18 the conditions were: fine and Dead4, rail out 2 metres.

1.47 p.m. R3 14 Opulent (3 f Keeper - Silk Slipper) - Leith Innes; made good inroads out of the pack for second to a handy type when resuming on Nov. 21 in the Maiden 1400 metres at New Plymouth, and now steps to 1600 metres. Late scratched when the track downgraded to Slow7 on Wednesday at Matamata, she should receive a nice trip from barrier seven and has both the form and ability to be considered a winning chance in this field.

3.37 p.m. R6 2 Longbeach (4 g Fastnet Rock - Betwixt) - Leith Innes; circled from the 800m and sustained a big run for second in the Rating 65 2000 metres at New Plymouth, in his first start up in distance this time in. Blinkers go on for the Rating 65 2100 metres and he is ideally drawn in barrier five. On this course two starts ago over a mile he closed stylishly for sixth, from ten lengths behind the leader and winning stable-mate Tiara (O'Reilly). He was unlucky not to have won with this rider aboard when resuming in September at Hastings, and would not need to improve much for the tide to turn his way.