No Tricks Looks the One To Beat

Mac Ryan

The Informant 10.1.15

Successive top results against top opposition point to No Tricks being the horse to beat in the New Zealand Bloodstock Airfreight Stakes at Riccarton Park tomorrow.

The Jason Bridgman-trained filly preceded her latest series of races with a close-up third behind Diademe and Abidewithme at the Cambridge trials before finishing an unlucky second at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, beaten a nose by Huka Eagle after rider Matt Cameron dropped his whip. A trio of group race fourths followed, in the Great Northern Guineas won by Volkstock’n’barrell, the Mr Tiz Trophy won by Passing Shot, and the Wellington Guineas won by Vespa.

No Tricks was finishing each of the races off well, the Great Northern Guineas was over 1600 metres, and Te Akau’s Stable Manager Jeff Dore expects the 1600 metres on Saturday to be bang-on for her. He describes No Tricks as a genuine filly who looks the part and has quite a bit of ability. The trip south for the Wellington Guineas was her first major expedition, Dore said she handled that well and he doesn’t expect her to be troubled travelling even further south this week.

Some rain is forecast for Christchurch before Saturday and might ease the track, something Dore feels would work in No Trick’s favour.

A second northerner capable of making her presence felt in the listed contest for three year old fillies is Somethingvain, trained at Pukekohe Park by Matt, Matthew and Michael Rogers. She has yet to race beyond rating-75 company, contests an age-group race for the first time, but has amassed stakes of more than $50,000 thanks mainly to a hat-trick of wins beginning with a Pearl Series maiden and concluding with a pair of premier meeting wins. The most recent was at Awapuni a fortnight ago.

Michael Rogers describes Somethingvain as a light-framed filly who will be better in six months but says on what she has done she deserves a shot at a stakes race.

“She had a trip to Awapuni to see how she would travel and did so well, we decided to have a go for black type,” he said.

Although there was a month between the latest two wins of Somethingvain, only ten days separated her first two and Rogers was pleased with the way she backed up. The Savabeel filly will be tackling 1600 metres for the first time and he doesn’t see that as an issue. He says she is bred to go 2000 metres and has that option in the New Zealand Bloodstock Warstep Stakes a week later. Rogers though isn’t going to make that call until he has seen what’s happened this week.

Somethingvain likes to run handy, drew one, and Rogers reckons that won’t hurt her chances a bit. She has been ridden in five of her six starts by Samantha Spratt who had committed to travelling south for the race. She has since been suspended, opening the way for David Walsh to take the reins.

Southland filly Belle Miraaj will be having her seventh start for the season and continuing her unusual record of having started only in black-type races as a three year old. The Gay Robinson-trained and part-owned filly has contested four listed races and two group ones, the latest being the New Zealand Oaks at Trentham in which she finished fifth in the hands of Vinnie Colgan.

“She had a week out to freshen, has been working well, she’s really good,” said Robinson who will stay on in Christchurch with the filly to prepare for the Warstep. Samantha Wynne who rode Belle Miraaj to victory in the 1600 metre Southland Guineas has the mount on Saturday. They have drawn two which pleases Robinson who said she’ll get a nice sit from there.

The race is the third of four in the New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly Series. Joint leader Miss Seton Sands lines up again this week, is racing at the top of her game and rates highly. She defeated Starlight Angel and Querer in the Wingatui series race and they are among the opposition again this week. Consensus, second in the Canterbury Belle Stakes, is the other racing on Saturday who has points in the series. She has recently joined the Riccarton Park stable of Terri Rae