Te Akau Taupo Preview

Te Akau New Zealand has two horses racing on Sunday 30 December at Taupo.

As on race morning the conditions were: fine and Dead4, rail true. No rain forecast.

1.20 p.m. R3 1 Griffin (4 g Iffraaj - Double Elle) - Chelsea Burdan (a4); came off a lengthy spell to trial nicely in November at Matamata, and ran home very well off a torrid pace when trialling on 11 December at Te Aroha, ridden by Burdan in each. A winner on debut at two, he went winless as a three-year-old when competitively contesting stakes' races. The brother of triple Group One winner Gingernuts steps out to resume in the $10,000 Rating 65 1200 metres. Fixed odds: $3.20 & $1.10.

1.55 p.m. R4 7 Spirit of Galway (3 f Rip Van Winkle - Galway) - Shafiq Rusof; given time since last racing, she staged two strong finishes for second and third respectively over 1000m and 1200m here with Shafiq aboard, mostly recently on 10 October. A three-quarter sister to Group One winner Shillelagh (Savabeel) and stakes winner Grazia (Savabeel), both trained by Te Akau, she too is naturally talented and warrants favouritism in the $10,000 Maiden 1000 metres. Fixed odds: $2.40 & $1.15.