Pam Gerard has made the most of opportunities in the South Island this year and will be well-represented on Sunday with Cork contesting the Oamaru Cup (1600m).
The six-year-old mare has been prominent during this period over the past two seasons, placing in the Listed Opunake Cup (1400m) two years ago before narrowly missing out on top honours in last year’s Group 3 Winter Cup (1600m) to Belardo Boy.
On track to contest the latter again next month at Riccarton Park, Gerard opted to send the mare down early with few options closer to home.
“With Tauranga not having the meeting they usually have, it left us with the choice of Wellington last week and Oamaru,” Gerard said.
“She was in at Wellington, but we scratched as transport-wise she would’ve had to stay there for four days before moving on to Christchurch. There was no way of getting her across before then and we didn’t want to bring her all the way home.
“Instead, we decided to wait, send her down and give her a run at Oamaru where she should get a nice enough track without it being too heavy and being a gut buster.
“It should be a nice little race for her.”
A daughter of Complacent, Cork will carry just 53.5kg courtesy of apprentice Lily Sutherland, while fellow visitor Conor O’Ceirin sits at the top of the book with 60kg.
“I think she’ll be running home, certainly after the trip down she’ll just settle midfield and be running home on her own steam really,” Gerard said.
“We don’t want to give her too hard of a run, it’s just to really top her off before Riccarton.”
Cork has travelled south with speedy Time Test filly Tonia’s Dragon, who has been allocated an outside draw.
“I’m not too worried about the gate, they’d have to be pretty quick to beat her out and she’s quick to get up and running,” Gerard said.
“She’s a smart filly that I think, down the track, could sneak a bit of black type but just needs a little bit of confidence and go through the grades.
“There’s some nice races down there for her, it’s a little bit hard to place a 65 1200m horse up here at the moment as they are quite tough.
“There’s an option for her at National Week, then another for both her and Cork a few weeks later for decent money at Riccarton. They’ll be down there for a wee while.”
Based at Matamata, Gerard entrusts her travelling horses in the care of Richard Fallon, who accompanied both Sassy Merlot and Harlech when the pair picked up feature races at Riccarton in the early autumn period.
“Richie has been in racing for a long time and is very experienced, and absolutely loves a trip away especially to the South Island,” Gerard said.
“He was with Sassy Merlot and Harlech when they came down earlier in the year and did such a fantastic job with them.
“He does all of my travelling away and is based at Riccarton with them, he’s got all of his contacts there so he’s very capable.”
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