Patience doesn’t always pay off but trainer Joe Pride is comfortable with waiting for what could be the ideal scenario to give Mazu the chance to break through the $9 million prizemoney mark at Rosehill on Saturday.
Pride elected to pull Mazu out of the Group 1 Galaxy last weekend in favour of the Group 3 $250,000 EGroup Security Star Kingdom Stakes (1200m) in the hope the gelding might find some give in the ground to make his task a bit easier.
Not so much from a class perspective, but he felt there was no way the Star Kingdom could set up worse for Mazu than the Galaxy did.
“I looked at the forecast and while it looked like we weren’t going to get that much almost anything was going to be better than a wide barrier on a dry track with a big weight,’’ Pride said.
“There weren’t enough things in his favour to roll the dice. As it turns out it looks like it’ll be a fair bit better.
“His ability on a wet track is the little bit extra he’s got, and when he gets that he has that extra advantage.”
Mazu’s last win came in the Group 3 Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) on a heavy track in April last year and while that’s his only win since Pride took over the training he’s collected around $1.3 million for his owners.
With the forecast looking kind for the six-year-old, $8 with TAB on Thursday, his record of seven wins from 17 starts on soft and heavy ground comes into play.
Pride said he’s been more than happy with Mazu’s two runs back from a spell, the latest a close up fifth behind Jedibeel in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) three weeks ago, and feels an inside barrier is another plus.
“I think he’s going really well, he hasn’t had any luck in either run,’’ he said.
“He had to face the breeze down at Flemington and he came back the other day and had a tough run at Randwick.
“He’s had two good toughen up runs and he finds a wet track. We’ll probably lead from that barrier.
“He’s a good old competitor, his form over his last couple of preparations has been very consistent.”
The Warwick Farm trainer has a couple of handy back ups in the Star Kingdom with Coal Crusher and Dragonstone, both also proven wet trackers, also drawn favourably.
Coal Crusher hasn’t yet had his blinkers applied this preparation but Pride said he will improve on what he produced first-up in the Maurice McCarten.
“He generally takes at least a couple of runs and this will be the second one of those,’’ he said.
“He goes well enough on the wet, he’s had some clashes and they’ve both beaten each other, him and Mazu, but it’s probably advantage Mazu from a fitness perspective.”
Dragonstone backs up after contesting the Galaxy last week where he wasn’t a factor after getting back in the field from a wide gate.
“He’s a good performer, he’s had a few starts and we’ve probably seen as good as he can go but he races at a competitive level. He does like the wet tracks,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, stable star Ceolwulf is set to start a short priced favourite in the Group 3 $300,000 Precise Air Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) as he prepares for next month’s Queen Elizabeth showdown with Via Sistina.
Pride was more than satisfied with the four-year-old’s close third in the George Ryder (1500m) last week and hopes drawing out this time will allow him time to wind into the race.
“That’s the good thing, it might be better out wide and you can overthink barriers on wet tracks and they can end up being okay,’’ he said.
“Barriers one or two could have been a real problem for him. I’m pretty keen to run, it’s the right timing for him to run this week.”
Ceolwulf has raced three times at 2000m for seconds in the Rosehill Guineas and Kingston Town Stakes last year.
By Ray Hickson
Racing NSW