Sugah Sweet (NZ) (Zacinto) came desperately close to winning last year’s Listed Clubs NZ Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) and on Thursday she’ll get another chance at the Tauherenikau feature in a similar vein of form.
The seven-year-old mare has been carefully handled with no more than six starts per season, a method that has paid dividends for trainer Bryce Newman, with her record also boasting five wins and a pair of fourth placings in the Gr.2 Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m) and Gr.3 Anniversary Handicap (1600m).
Those two races preceded Sugah Sweet’s attempt at the race 12 months ago, where she fought subsequent Group One performer Town Cryer all the way down the straight, only missing by a head at the post.
This campaign, Newman opted to resume his mare in late December in the Poverty Bay Turf Club Cup (1400m) at Taupo, where she second rated a tidy field. She then headed to Trentham and recorded the fastest 800, 600 and 400m sectionals in a race won by Our Echo, a performance that gave Newman good confidence as she steps up to a mile.
“The Taupo run was a good way to resume and we were really happy with her at Trentham, we rode her quite quietly and she got home really well,” he said. “She was probably looking for the 1600m there, but it was a stepping stone towards the Breeders.
“We’ve always had this race in mind, we probably thought that she’d come to the end of her preparation when we arrived there last year and she only just got beaten by a very small margin to a very good horse in Town Cryer.
“We decided we would change it a little bit this year and try to get her in there more on the up, going into as the first time at 1600m (this preparation) seems to be her go.”
Stablemate Lets All Boogie (Sooboog) has drawn an outside gate in the NZB Mega Maiden Series Maiden (1600m) later in the card, while Treat Yourself (Kuripuni Sports Bar and TAB Maiden 2050) and Vavoom (Herbert Morton Accoutants R65 1000) complete Newman’s representatives.
“Lets All Boogie will go another good, honest race I think, but she’s drawn out, so we’ve got a decision to make there,” he said. “She may end up at Otaki on Sunday.
“The other two are runner’s chances.”