A steady stream of winners in the past few months has the Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott training partnership sitting in fourth on the National Trainer’s premiership table and they look to have a number of top chances to add to their season’s 22-win tally at Pukekohe on New Year’s Day.
Central amongst their stable chances are two of the well-favoured runners lining up in the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) with topweight Dragon Leap (57kgs) and one of last season’s better three-year-olds in Waitak ready to provide their race rivals with a stern challenge.
O’Sullivan believes they both have the ability to feature prominently and isn’t concerned that the rain forecast for the region in the next 24 hours will unduly affect their chances with the Pukekohe track currently rated a Soft7.
“I think we have two good chances in the Railway and we are very happy with where they are at for the day,” O’Sullivan said.
“We know that Dragon Leap (Pierro) is at his best early in a campaign and we have just been ticking him along since he ran second at Hastings in the Tarzino Torphy (Gr.1, 1400m) back in September.
“He is lining up sound and his final work this week was very encouraging.
“It is a bit of the unknown with Waitak (NZ) (Proisir) and could be considered a throw at the stumps, but after looking around at what was available, this looked like his best option.
“He was very good first-up at Te Rapa and if we do get the rain they are predicting I think it will only aid his chances.
“He used to over-race badly over the longer distances so we have been working on the theory he really only wants to go around one corner and that seemed to pan out at Te Rapa.
“With plenty of speed in the race we are hoping they can both get a nice run in transit and we can look for them to be getting home late in the piece.”
The stable’s other stakes contenders on the programme will also be entering the unknown to some degree but O’Sullivan believes that they deserve their chance at black type racing.
“We have Uderzo (NZ) (Vadamos) in the Rich Hill Mile (Gr.2, 1600m) and he hasn’t missed a beat since he finished an unlucky second on Boxing Day,” he said.
“This is a big step up for him but he is another that didn’t have many other options in the next few weeks, so we are hoping he can be competitive which will give us a few more avenues for the rest of the summer.
“Saxs ‘n’ Silks (Saxon Warrior) is still a maiden but she will only have six rivals in the Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (Gr.2, 2050m) in what is a field that isn’t as strong as it has been in previous years.
“We had the choice of running in an 1800m maiden at Taupo or trying to get some valuable black type for her, so we have taken a punt to get a result.”
Enigmatic one-win mare Karman Line (NZ) (Myboycharlie) will also attract plenty of attention when she makes her long awaited return to racing in a rating 75 1400m contest after last being seen when finishing seventh in the Gr.2 Travis Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa in April.
“We are still on the fence a little with her (Karman Line) as I would have liked to have seen her looking better in the coat, but we have to start somewhere,” O’Sullivan said.
“Her work has been very strong and we know she has the ability however we really just want to see her keen and hungry to compete, which she has been doing in her build-up, so we think the signs are positive for her.”
The stable tally was boosted by a further victory after racing was completed at Taupo on Saturday with promising three-year-old Tanganyika winning comfortably over 1300m.