Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray will be out to complete their trio of New Zealand feature two-mile successes at Trentham on Saturday when Nereus takes on the Group 3 Wellington Cup (3200m).
The Cambridge training partnership won both the Group 3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) and Group 2 Auckland Cup (3200m) last season with Mahrajaan, and while he was the headliner for the stable, waiting in the wings was emerging stayer Nereus, who took out the Group 3 Awapuni Gold Cup (2100m) later in the autumn.
This term, the Savabeel five-year-old built to an impressive win in the Group 3 Counties Cup (2100m), which subsequently had him carrying the top-weight in the Group 3 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, where he finished eighth, a run Ritchie is happy to move on from.
“I think that (weight) was the significant difference, he’s not a big horse and with No Compromise compressing his weight down to 53kg at Counties, it looked a good race for him and that’s how it turned out,” he said.
“Obviously going up to the topweight in the Queen Elizabeth was a step too far, so it was a forgive run.
“We’re pretty convinced he’ll run the two miles out strongly, based on his trackwork and how well he relaxes early and mid-race. If that’s the case and we’ve got a two-miler, then it opens quite a few doors for us.
“We always thought he would be a Cups-style horse and the ultimate prizemoney is getting up to two miles, so we’ve wanted to try him at this distance.”
Nereus is currently rated a $13 chance with horse racing bookmakers for Saturday’s contest, with Victorian raider Interpretation heading the market at $3. While Ritchie knows the threat the gelding brings across the Tasman, Nereus also benefits from his presence in the race.
“The obvious thing here is the Australian horse coming over, he’s favourite and he’s going to be hard to beat,” Ritchie said. “But he does compress us down to a winnable weight, he gets us only three and half kilos off the minimum, a luxury compared to last time.
“He’s got a great record with Trentham, it’s the track he’s performed up to his best at. I’m really looking forward to the race on Saturday.”
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