Madonna Mia
Race Images Palmerston North
Madonna Mia will hone her fitness for Saturday week's Listed Ag Challenge Stakes (1600m) at Wanganui when she tackles the IRT North Island Challenge Stakes (1400m) at Trentham this weekend.
But while New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock has made it clear the six-year-old Red Clubs mare would be at her peak for the Wanganui weight-for-age feature, he's not ruling out a successful lead-up run at Trentham on Saturday.
"Her main goal is Wanganui and she'll be extremely hard to beat there, but she went to Trentham and won last year and backed up a week later and won the Foxton Cup so she's proven that she can handle the back-up," Sharrock said.
"We'd considered giving her a jump-out to tune her up for Wanganui, but she's doing that well that we thought we may as well go to Trentham and race for $40,000 as going around for no prize money."
Madonna Mia won the Trentham Gold Cup (2100m) by seven lengths at the corresponding meeting last year, but Sharrock shied away from that race on two counts - one that the North Island Challenge Stakes served as a more suitable lead-up to Wanganui and the other that the Cup was a non-claiming race.
Sharrock has booked 2kg claiming stable apprentice Dylan Mo to ride Madonna Mia on Saturday, though Darryl Bradley will be back aboard the 98-rated mare at Wanganui.
"She's probably stuffed for handicap races now and this one is a claiming race so it made sense to throw Dylan on board," Sharrock said.
"There's a strong chance that the weight-for-age race at Wanganui will be her last race because of where she's got to in the handicaps now. She'll probably get put aside after that and be served in the spring and we'll assess it from there."
Madonna Mia has won eight of her 40 starts, including the Listed Wanganui Cup last November, and she ran home strongly for second in the Listed Rotorua Stakes (1400m) earlier this month.
"That was a fantastic run. If she had got to the outside, she probably would have won. She's come up better than ever this time in," Sharrock said. - NZ Racing Desk
But while New Plymouth trainer Allan Sharrock has made it clear the six-year-old Red Clubs mare would be at her peak for the Wanganui weight-for-age feature, he's not ruling out a successful lead-up run at Trentham on Saturday.
"Her main goal is Wanganui and she'll be extremely hard to beat there, but she went to Trentham and won last year and backed up a week later and won the Foxton Cup so she's proven that she can handle the back-up," Sharrock said.
"We'd considered giving her a jump-out to tune her up for Wanganui, but she's doing that well that we thought we may as well go to Trentham and race for $40,000 as going around for no prize money."
Madonna Mia won the Trentham Gold Cup (2100m) by seven lengths at the corresponding meeting last year, but Sharrock shied away from that race on two counts - one that the North Island Challenge Stakes served as a more suitable lead-up to Wanganui and the other that the Cup was a non-claiming race.
Sharrock has booked 2kg claiming stable apprentice Dylan Mo to ride Madonna Mia on Saturday, though Darryl Bradley will be back aboard the 98-rated mare at Wanganui.
"She's probably stuffed for handicap races now and this one is a claiming race so it made sense to throw Dylan on board," Sharrock said.
"There's a strong chance that the weight-for-age race at Wanganui will be her last race because of where she's got to in the handicaps now. She'll probably get put aside after that and be served in the spring and we'll assess it from there."
Madonna Mia has won eight of her 40 starts, including the Listed Wanganui Cup last November, and she ran home strongly for second in the Listed Rotorua Stakes (1400m) earlier this month.
"That was a fantastic run. If she had got to the outside, she probably would have won. She's come up better than ever this time in," Sharrock said. - NZ Racing Desk
