Cody Cole will be watching his in-form mare Rareza from afar on Saturday in her quest for a stakes victory.
The Matamata trainer is taking a well-earned break at Port Douglas in Queensland during a personal-best season of 34 winners and stable earnings of more than $1.2 million.
Cole has received positive reports from his staff ahead of the Rareza’s bid to make it four consecutive victories when she runs in the Listed Team Wealleans Tauranga Classic (1400m).
“She’s going well and has come through her last win nicely,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s a step up to weight-for-age and it’s not going to be easy, but she deserves to be there and worked well on Thursday morning.”
The daughter of Exosphere has fashioned the tidy record of four successes from nine outings and opened her latest winning sequence at Trentham in the spring before a break.
She successfully resumed at Woodville at the end of April and struck again last month at Te Rapa.
“When she stepped up last start, we decided we needed to look at black-type options,” Cole said.
A daughter of four-time winner La Valeta, Rareza was co-bred by Cole’s mother Lou, who is part of the ownership group in the mare.
“She’s a mare that comes from Mum’s family and goes back to For Love, who won the Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (Gr.2, 1400m) so more black type on the page would be valuable,” Cole said.
“Rareza was a foal share with Mike O’Donnell of Fairhill Farm and went through the weanling sale, but she didn’t get a bid, so we syndicated her to race and here we are now.”
She will again be ridden by Michael McNab at Tauranga and is then likely to head for a break.
“I’ll probably give her a freshen-up and look toward the spring,” Cole said.
“There are some nice options, she doesn’t want the firmer tracks, but she was good on a better surface at Te Rapa, so that was pretty encouraging.”
Cole also has other winning chances on Saturday with Bradley in the A1 Homes Maiden (1600m), Oneira runs in the BOP Equine Vets (1200m) and Kai Moana in the Super Liquor Greerton (1600m).
The former has been knocking on the door with runner-up finishes from his last two appearances.
“Bradley thought he’d got the job done the other day and knocked off, the inside horse was too far away for him to chase,” Cole said.
“On face value, Oneira looked a bit disappointing, but we rode her back and they ran home in 33s and she just doesn’t have that sort of turn of foot.”
Placed in last season’s Gr.3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m), Oneira had led and finished runner-up at Ellerslie at her previous run while Kai Moana was also second two starts ago at Hawera before a fifth at Wanganui.
“She just needs to lead, that’s her pattern, as she can’t really quicken,” Cole said.