New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock is pleased he made a late change to the spring itinerary of Ladies Man, who will now line up in the Group 2 Tauranga Stakes (1600m) on Saturday.
The winner of seven of his 29 starts headed by the Group 1 Livamol Classic (2040m) at Hastings last year, Ladies Man was originally entered for the Group 3 Thompson Handicap (1600m) at Trentham on October 27. However, his rating of 105 would have seen him carry 60kg in that event while most of his rivals had 53kg or 54.5kg.
Sharrock eventually decided to scratch the seven-year-old Zed gelding from the Thompson and redirect him to Saturday’s $150,000 feature at Tauranga, which is run under weight-for-age conditions.
“Weight-for-age suits him much better than the Thompson would have under that weight, and especially on a Trentham track that was very heavy and became quite arduous,” the New Plymouth trainer said. “I think we pulled the right rein in the end.
“He won a jump out last week and worked brilliantly on Tuesday. He can cope with a bit of rain, so I won’t be too worried if they get some of that in Tauranga leading into the race.
“Safely through this, we’ll look to step him back up to Group One level for the Captain Cook Stakes (Group 1, 1600m) and then the Zabeel Classic (Group 1, 2000m).”
The Captain Cook Stakes is now known as the TAB Mufhasa Classic and will be run at Trentham on December 7, while the Zabeel Classic is back at its traditional home of Ellerslie on Boxing Day after two years at Pukekohe.
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