The door remains slightly ajar for the promising Battle Sound to take on the best of his age group at Riccarton next month.
The son of Belardo made the perfect start to his career earlier this month, but connections are dubious about the gelding following through on a nomination for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton.
“It’s probably unlikely, I think the track may be a bit hard for him down there,” said Pam Gerard, who trains in partnership with Michael Moroney.
“There are plenty of races around Christmas, but it will depend on what happens on Saturday.
“If he ran particularly well then we may run him in the Sarten Memorial (Gr.2, 1400m) at Te Rapa, but he would have to be pretty impressive in both starts to go down to Riccarton.”
Battle Sound will make his second appearance at Matamata in the Comag Ltd 3YO (1400m) after the gelding’s raw talent overcame his waywardness to win earlier this month.
“He was really bad, but he got the job done. He has never really done anything wrong before that, but he was on his home track and that’s where we usually gallop out wide,” Gerard said.
“Sometimes these young horses tend to run off the rail.”
Consideration was given to Battle Sound tackling Saturday’s rescheduled Gr.2 AHD Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) before deciding to make haste slowly.
“We did give it some thought, but there’s some nice horses in that and he did do a bit wrong first time so it’s better to take the easier option with him,” Gerard said.
“I’m happy with him as he’s quite a hard horse to get a line on. He doesn’t give much away in trackwork, but he stepped up on race day last time and is back on his home track again.”
Battle Sound was purchased at Karaka by Paul Moroney and Ballymore Stables for $60,000 from the draft of Waikato Stud, who bred the horse with the Dowager Duchess of Bedford.
Meanwhile, stablemate Harlech will step back up to the big time in the Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) following his resuming run for fifth at Te Rapa.
“He was super after carrying 62kg over 1200m and was pretty impressive going past the line,” Gerard said.
“He has had three Group One seconds so he’s not too far off the mark.”
Harlech has runner-up finishes in the Livamol Classic (2040m), the New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and the Levin Classic (1600m) to his credit.
His new barnmate The Mayor, who has won seven races and was a multiple black type placegetter in Australia, will make his first start for the stable in the Listed Team Wealleans Matamata Cup (1600m).
“I can’t fault him, he won a trial and did as much as he had to and has worked up really well,” Gerard said.
“If he wants to be out there, he’ll give it a good bash and if he doesn’t then he can go to the retirement paddock.
“At the moment, he is working well enough to say he can be competitive. We’re a bit light in some of those open class staying races so there might be chances for him to win a bit more money.”