Addington feature preview – The Kaikoura Cup

The “Road To the Cup” continues on Monday with the running of the Alabar Group 2 Kaikoura Cup at Addington.

While it’s disappointing that the feature race day isn’t at the stunning South Bay track of Kaikoura the race has attracted a strong field and it’s good to see the decent race numbers given the lack of genuine contests we’ve seen so far in this “Road To The Cup”

The Kaikoura Cup itself has a great history that harks back to the late 1960’s. Early victors include Manaroa, who won the title in 1970 when off a 18yd handicap, and Palestine who overcame a 10m mark in 1977. Diamond Moose won back-to-back Kaikoura Cups in 1983 and 1984, an achievement repeated immediately by Spry Joker in 1985 and 1986. The fine pacer Master Musician had an enviable record around South Bay and captured two titles in 1992 and 1993 while Il Vicolo secured a brace of titles himself beating out Hoppy’s Jet in 1995 and then seeing off Prince Rashad the year after. Recent winners of the race include Smiling Shard, Arden Rooney (who went on to capture the NZ Cup title) and the mighty Lazarus who won the race in an amazing time of  2.54.3 in 2017.

As stated above we finally get the chance to see a full field contest a NZ Cup lead-up race here which presents us with plenty of talking points.

Favouritism for the race lies with the B Mangos trained South Arden who comes into this feature off the back of being demoted out of a winning position when last produced. His quality win over Pembrook Playboy, Self Assured and others in the Canterbury Classic may just have been the best performance of the NZ Cup lead-in races so far hence why he most probably deserves the favourite tag. He does face a tough ask to win here though with an unruly draw to overcome and a big field to get around by the time the winning post comes about.

His chief rival appears to be the Robert and Jenna Dunn trained Classie Brigade who is looking to write a little history and complete a treble of wins in the Kaikoura Cup after winning the title in 2019 and 2020 . His stunning second in the Ashburton Flying Stakes should have served as a reminder to all that he’s capable of winning any race and is particularly suited to standing start features.  Cranbourne (drawn #2) strides into this Kaikoura Cup after a tough Methven Cup victory at Geraldine and gets his chance to worry race rivals from somewhere near the front of the action while the Geoff Dunn trained Laver (off an unruly draw) never really went away after sitting parked at Ashburton and could well improve further in this. He’s a nightmare for any leading horse that lacks a little intestinal fortitude is Laver as he’ll stay positioned outside you for days on end and still be fighting away when the accolades are given out. He’s a good horse!

Other runners of interest arrive in the form of the Barry Purdon trained Bad To The Bone who is fresh off a 2^nd to Major Jellis in the Holmes DG Pace and the juvenile star Krug (drawn #6)  who was sound at Ashburton from off the pace and could  have a slightly better chance of showing his absolute best here if there’s a genuine tempo to things… and that’s leaving out a real improver in Terry (drawn #1) and the talented duo of Henry Hubert and Kango.

It’s got a good look to it this field, there’s enough talent and depth and numbers present to really produce an outstanding edition of the Kaikoura Cup, let’s hope it delivers.

Ben McMillan