Australian three-year-olds have rarely ventured across the Tasman for the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) or Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton in recent years, and despite a healthy contingent among this year’s nominations, that trend appears likely to continue in 2021.
No Australian three-year-olds have contested a Guineas at Riccarton since 2017, when the Francis Finnegan-trained Trinity Hill finished a close seventh behind Risque.
Expat New Zealand trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young have put forward seven early nominations for this year’s edition of the 2000 Guineas on November 6, with another four entered for the 1000 Guineas a week later.
Among their entries are the last-start Listed McKenzie Stakes (1200m) winner He’s Xceptional, whose sire Xtravagant won the New Zealand 2000 Guineas in race-record time in 2015, along with promising Kiwi-breds such as Footlights, Riverplate and Forgot You.
Riverplate is a Flying Artie colt raced by prominent Kiwi owner Tommy Heptinstall. After a second placing on debut at Te Rapa in June behind Mustang Valley, he crossed the Tasman and kicked off his Australian career with an eye-catching second at Sandown on September 1.
Footlights and Forgot You are two sons of Savabeel racing in the colours of Ozzie Kheir, and the pair have picked up stylish recent victories at Cranbourne and Moonee Valley respectively.
However, Busuttin warned that a trans-Tasman mission is not currently on the radar for their team, who have also been nominated for the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) or Thousand Guineas (1600m) in Melbourne in October.
“I’d have to say it’s probably not very likely at this stage that any of them would be heading over for the Guineas races at Riccarton this year,” he said.
“Putting in those nominations was more just a case of covering all bases in terms of these horses’ spring campaigns. We’ll be focussing on targets on this side of the Tasman for the time being, and we think they’re shaping up as some nice prospects for those races this year.”
Fellow Kiwi horseman Brad Taylor, who works as racing manager for Anthony and Sam Freedman, provided a similar response around that stable’s two 1000 Guineas entries – Elusive Express and Devout Hero.
“We put in those nominations as a backup plan and just to make sure we keep all options open at this stage,” Taylor said.
“We know how valuable a Group One win is for these three-year-old fillies on their pedigree pages, so it’s good to have options like that available to fall back on if needed.
“But for now we’re aiming both of those fillies towards the Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr.2, 1400m) at Caulfield next week, and we’ll go from there.
“Devout Hero is a really nice filly owned by the China Horse Club, while the other filly is one that we managed to buy after an impressive trial in New Zealand.
“They’ve both shown good ability with recent maiden wins, and in time we think they could develop into staying horses that we could possibly get towards an Oaks here in Australia. So that’s probably more what we have in mind for them at this stage.”
