Two Cups beckon for Wag Star

Wag Star (Sweet Lou) has two Cups on his radar and tomorrow’s Alabar Kaikoura Cup will be the decider as to whether the Wyndham trained harness racing gelding will start in the IRT New Zealand Cup on Tuesday of next week.

“If he manages to get a spot in the Cup we’ll certainly go. It’ll be a huge thrill for the owners,” trainer Craig Ferguson said.

The four year old sits just outside the top fifteen in the current Cup leaderboard and requires a win in tomorrow’s feature pace to progress into the top fifteen and guarantee himself a chance.

“I worked him this morning (Thursday) and he worked nice. I’ll give him another run on Saturday and we’ll go from there.”

The four year old pacer is expected to relish the small turning Kaikoura circuit.

“He’s a good pacer and touchwood he’s been beginning good. It’s a bit of a tricky surface and doesn’t suit all, but it’ll be one that I think will suit him. But you don’t know until we get there.”

In the $60,000 Group Two pacing feature Wag Star draws six on the outside of the front row for driver Mark Hurrell.

“Sometimes in those stand starts you don’t want to be drawn one, two or three. Out in the middle he’s going to have a little bit of time to get away and move forward or go back. I’ll leave that up to Mark.”

It is expected though that Wag Star will be taken forward.

“Judging by the way he’s always been , I’d say so. I don’t tell Mark anything. I just leave it up to him. It’s a tight turning track so running along in front could suit him. There are some nice horses in there so it may not be that easy.”

Meanwhile Ferguson is thrilled to have got Louies Girl (Lord Forbes) into the $200,000 Nevele R Fillies Series Final on Cup Day.

“It wasn’t looking likely for a while. She needed to step up the other day and thankfully she did. She got a good run and stuck her nose out when it counted. I always knew she would handle the step up (in class). The 1700 metres really suited her, the short distance racing seems to suit her. There are some good miles down here next season which will suit her.”

Ferguson wasn’t so happy with his other Ashburton runner Da Vinci, (Art Major) which ran seventh in the Ashburton Flying Stake, nine and a half lengths from the winner Merlin.

“He let himself down the other day. I could have crossed over to the fence. He got his body in front and decided he wanted to pull up. You can’t be doing that against those good horses. The pegs were the key the other day and if he’d got there he would have finished a lot closer. He’s tried to pull up a few times. He did it in the South Of The Waitaki race last year.”

Ferguson says Da Vinci will stay in Canterbury and race on Cup or Show Day. After that he’ll be brought home and freshened up.

“He’ll come back for the Country Cup races and the Invercargill Cup.”

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink