After a tough 72 hours, whose memory even Friday’s triumphs couldn’t quite erase, Mark had some good news on Sunday.
Akuta showed with his exercise he is looking good to run in the Auckland Cup next Friday.
“He jogged sound this morning so that puts us in a much better position” he said.
“Until then we weren’t looking so good”
“He should have enough time now to do the work leading into the Cup and that’s good news”
A flurry of foot issues dogged the Purdon team late last week resulting in two scratchings from a feature races and the brilliant Millwood Nike going close to being a withdrawal from her end of prep target, the Sires Stakes Fillies Championship=her 14th win in a row.
High Energy is still recovering
“It was a testing time.I’d rther look back on it than go through it again” Mark said
“It was really brought about by the wet weather. We had been keeping a close eye on their feet in the soft ground but it was building up inside and burst out at exactly the wrong time in the wrong horses. We were probably lucky to get away with what we did.”
High Energy was forced to miss the Trotting Derby and is one of four of the Auckland team headed for the spelling paddock this week.
High Energy and High Step are due for a letup while Millwood Nike and Fortify will join them having a break before testing targets in the second half of the season.
Self Assured,seeking to become the first horse to win three Auckland Cups,came through his race well as usual extending his remarkable record of wins and placings to starts and with a hint of “there is something more there yet” about his run.
“Well you aim at the big ones but he was ready to win on Friday.He just blew out the last bit after sitting parked and I was very happy with that”
Oscar Bonavena was impressive in one way, not so hot in another as far as Mark was concerned.
“I was very happy with the way he trotted. Better than he had been up here so far. But I thought some of the sprinting power I expected wasn’t quite there”
NB We Can Have It All showed her true class on Friday but she missed one major first with her Young Guns Final win.
The filly was on schedule to be the first winner world -wide for American sire Volstead when she made her debut some weeks ago. Inexperience proved her undoing as it did in her final Young Guns leadup.
She is still the first in New Zealand but in the last two weeks two youngsters in Australia-to where Volstead shuttled-have been successful. Still it was encoururaging signs for owner Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover who are taking an increasing role among Purdon Racing owners.