Trainer Peter Didham was pleased to see his regally-bred mare Manifique return to form at Trentham last Saturday when finishing runner-up behind Waitak in the Group 2 Awapuni Gold Cup (2400m).
The daughter of New Zealand Champion Sire Savabeel and multiple Group One winner Shez Sinsational has been an enigma for the Awapuni trainer but rewarded his faith with a gallant effort over the weekend.
“I am always expecting that (good performance) with her, she just disappoints me quite often,” Didham said. “She has got a tonne of talent.
She’ll go a bottler and then every time I think she is going to win her next one she just throws in an average one, and I still can’t work out why.
“She has been checked out so many times it’s not funny, but she just has a tendency to hang every now and then and when you are hanging in on one rein, you are not thinking about running on.
“She settled beautifully on Saturday and put in some huge strides. Waitak is a class horse, and he deserved to win, but to get a Group Two placing for my owners I was over the moon.”
Further Group targets await Manifique next month, but Didham is still weighing up between two options at either end of the country.
“She has pulled up well, she is going to have two or three easy days,” he said. “I was thinking about the Hawke’s Bay Cup (Listed, 2200m) in two weeks, but she seems better fresher, so she will either go to the Travis Stakes (Group 2, 2000m, at Te Rapa) or Canterbury Gold Cup (Group 3, 2000m, at Riccarton).”
While pleased with Manfique’s performance, Didham was left slightly disappointed in the showings of his two juveniles in the Group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), with War Princess and Shameless Star finishing third-to-last and last respectively.
“They have both gone out to the paddock,” Didham said. “It might have been a bridge too far, they went very hard. I don’t regret having a go at a Group One worth $550,000, that is what we bought them for, to run in two and three-year-old races.”
Meanwhile, Didham will head to Waverley with two representatives on Friday.
Three-year-old gelding Lucullan has placed in both of his starts to date and Didham is hoping for an improved result this week in the Mark Forst Electrical (1100m), while Gum Basher will contest the Paul Jones Construction (1400m).
“Lucullan should go reasonably well, and Gum Basher is wanting a bit of rain, which is meant to come,” Didham said.
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