Taranaki mare Coventina Bay will make her New Zealand return at Awapuni on Saturday where she will line-up in the Group 2 Carters Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m).
The daughter of Shamexpress had three unplaced runs in Queensland following her runner-up result behind Avantage in the Group 1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) in April.
She enjoyed a few months break lapping up the sun across the ditch following her Queensland sojourn before returning home, readying for a summer campaign.
“She spent two months off at a place called Wishbone up in the Sunshine Coast and then came back and was straight into it,” trainer Robbie Patterson said.
“She has been back in work for three and a half months now.”
Coventina Bay has had three trials leading into the weekend, winning her 1000m heat at Foxton fresh-up before an uncharacteristic disappointing performance on the Cambridge synthetic, and then pleasing in her final hit-out when winning her 1200m heat at Foxton last week.
Patterson said his charge didn’t enjoy the kick-back on the synthetic surface at Cambridge and is confident of a bold showing this weekend following her trial last week.
“Craig (Grylls, jockey) came back (after Cambridge trial) and said she hated the kick-back in her face and he had to angle her wide and get her out of the way so she could see where she was going,” Patterson said.
“She trialled up really nicely last week at Foxton and has come through it well. It took a couple of trials to get a bit of fitness back into her.
“The way she trialled last week and her gallop this morning, she will need a run, but good horses fresh-up can jump out of the ground.
“She always puts in 100 percent. She never got the rub of the green in Aussie. The smaller fields will help here, she won’t get so far out of her ground. I expect her to go a super race.”
While confident of a bold showing, Patterson’s biggest concern leading into Saturday is the weather.
With Awapuni rated a Heavy11 on Tuesday morning, he is hoping the wet forecast clears before the weekend.
“She won her maiden on a Heavy track and they went 1.13 (1200m), so it was a May heavy,” he said.
“It looks like it is clearing Thursday and if we can get a good day Friday that would be good.
“The forecast has changed a couple of times. I wouldn’t run her if it was in the Heavy range, it would have to be Slow at best for her to run.”
All going well after Saturday, Coventina Bay has some lofty targets ahead of her this summer.
“The Thorndon Mile (Group 1, 1600m) is her main target and I would like to try her over 2000m in the Herbie Dyke (Group 1),” Patterson said.
“She loves Te Rapa and I think she will like 2000m, she settles really well in the running and she never gets on the bit, and when you ask her to sprint she will go.
“If she can and show a decent turn of foot, she will be hard to beat in a 2000m race.”
A good result in the Te Rapa feature could result in her return to Queensland over winter, but Patterson is holding reserved expectations.
“The only way we would be going back there is over 2000m. I wouldn’t take a sprinter back there, especially one that gets back in the running, it is too tough,” he said.
“They jump, find their places pretty quickly, and then sprint home.
“If she won the Herbie Dyke, hypothetically I would look at something like the Doomben Cup (Group 1, 2000m), but that is pie in the sky at moment.”