NZ HARNESS NEWS
Open-class pacing enigma Locharburn pleased Amberley owner-trainer Kevin Chapman with his fourth at the Rangiora workouts this week, but he is making no concrete New Zealand Cup plans with the seven-year-old stallion.
“We’ll just take it one day at a time and see what happens,’’ Chapman said on Thursday.
“Everything’s fine at the moment but when you’ve had problems in the past you just never quite know where you are going to be tomorrow.
“We’re just ticking along and flying under the radar. Hopefully, things will go better than they did last year.’’
Locharburn has only raced 33 times for 14 wins and just under $400,000 in stakes, so if he stays healthy could be in for a big season.
“I just gave him a quiet run [at the workouts on Wednesday],’’ said Chapman, noting the sedate overall 2:39.2 time over 2000m (mobile) as he finished just behind the front three.
‘’He’s still pretty big and burly. They came home in 26.7s [last 400m] and he felt good and pulled up good.
‘’We’ll just have a couple of quiet weeks now and head back to the trials to see where we are.
“He’s well within himself and is one of those horses who doesn’t take a lot of work, so he comes up quite easy.’’
Chapman would love to have him cherry ripe on NZ Cup day on the second Tuesday in November to take on the likes of defending champion Lazarus and rising star Heaven Rocks.
“That’s the long-term plan but how you get there is another question. I’ve made plenty of plans in the past and they’ve all come unstuck so I’m not making any,’’ he laughed.
“If we have to start [fresh-up] one start out from the cup then that’s what we’ll do. If it means three starts then it’s three starts.’’
Locharburn is at a lucrative $51 to win the cup on the TAB’s early fixed-odds market, with the Mark Purdon-Natalie Rasmussen-trained pair Lazarus at $2.20 and Heaven Rocks at $3.80.
After missing the 2014-15 season with leg problems, Locharburn made a super comeback before again being hit by niggling problems in April, 2016.
But the rugged son of Christian Cullen was shaping as a serious NZ Cup contender when flying early last season, winning the Maurice Holmes Vase (2600m) at Addington over Tiger Tara and Franco Nelson in early September, but being hit by minor niggles in the build-up to the NZ Cup.
‘’When he won the Vase he was going good and then everything turned to shit. But that’s racing sometimes.’’
Chapman decided to bypass the cup over 3200m and he ran a super second on cup day to Dream About Me in the $30,000 free-for-all (2600m), after looping the field and leading at the 1600m.
But he failed to finish in the top three in seven later starts, going out for a spell in mid-April after finishing a solid fifth behind Lazarus in a sprint home at Addington, when they clocked a 54.7s last 800m over 2600m.
Top Kiwi reinsman Dexter Dunn drove the rugged stayer in most races last season, but also handed over to Ricky May, brother John Dunn and Auckland reinsman Josh Dickie when he drove the likes of Christen Me and Titan Banner.
Chapman said he had no set plans on a driver yet.
“We’ll just wait and see. I’ve got a couple of options so I’m not too worried about that at this stage either.’’
Chapman said win eight win-trotter Belles Son, a half-brother to topliner Stent, went well when third at the workouts after three months away from the racetrack.
“I was pretty happy with him. He had a few issues last season, just little niggly things but he seems to be good at the moment.’’
“They’re both quality horses and both competitive in that top grade, but you can’t compete in the top grade unless you’re spot on.’’
ENDS
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