By Jonny Turner
Trainers Brent and Tim White won’t be lacking any firepower when they attempt to take the Waikouaiti Cup home on Sunday.
The Whites have another grass track feature in their sights with Got You Covered, who ran to an easy victory in the Riverton Cup last week.
The big difference this week is that the Whites have brought him back up, with Lone Wolf and Commander Ben also heading south to contest the day’s feature at Oamaru.
Got You Covered takes top billing among the White team, opening the $2.30 fixed odds favourite for his 3000m staying test.
And his team think that’s pretty fair.
“The old boy has probably got to be the top pick out of our ones,” Tim White said.
“It is actually surprising how close our other two horses are to him in the handicaps considering he has run in the top four in group races.”
Got You Covered was heading to the Amberley Cup at Rangiora on Tuesday, but being given a 10m handicap was too tempting.
“We were doing the nominations on Monday and just fitted into the handicaps for this race too well,” White said.
“He came back from Riverton, and he came off the float like a two-year-old.”
“His work this week was really good; he worked with Commander Ben, and they both went to the line really nice.”
Commander Ben will face his toughest recent test in the Waikouaiti Cup.
But he brings excellent form to the race, having scored in his last two outings on grass.
“This is a bit of a test for him, but if he can get a similar run to his last start, he probably shouldn’t be too far away from them,” White said.
“If he can get a handy run, he should be able to get home well enough.”
“The only thing is he can get keen at times which he can’t afford to do over 3000m.”
Lone Wolf comes south after two close-up efforts in competitive fields at the recent Blenheim grass track meeting.
The White camp hope the horse’s front-line handicap and the Sunday’s eight horse field will help the pacer be even more competitive.
“In this race he is going to be a spot closer than he was at Blenheim, if that was the case he should be pretty competitive.”
“His form going into this is pretty solid really.”
“And he will be on a track that isn’t as leader-biased as his last two starts.”
“He has come on from the trip to Blenheim, and he seems really well.”
One Change and Homebush Lad look like the two big threats to the White trio in the Waikouaiti Cup.
