Bonifleur (NZ) (Burgundy) will have her first raceday start on Cambridge’s polytrack on Wednesday, and trainer Paul Richards is hopeful of a positive result.
The Pencarrow Stud-bred and raced mare was in a purple patch of form over summer, winning in December and placing in her subsequent two starts before putting in a below par performance when last in the Entain/NZB Insurance Pearl Series Final (1400m) at Ellerslie in March.
The daughter of Burgundy has been freshened, and Richards is looking forward to kicking-off her winter campaign in the TAB 1300.
“That last run at Ellerslie was below par for her but she did have a bit of an excuse post-race (mucus found in the trachea), so we gave her a bit of a break after that,” Richards said.
“She went back to Pencarrow for a month and then came back to the stable. She has been working well and eating well.
“She had a quiet trial on the synthetic a couple of weeks ago and I am pretty happy with her condition.
“We will be a bit wiser after tomorrow (about her liking for the synthetic surface) under raceday conditions, but she pulled up well after she trialled on it, so hopefully she will race well on it.”
Bonifleur is rated a $9.50 winning chance with TAB bookmakers for Wednesday’s feature, behind Lhasa ($2.40), and the Ben and Ryan Foote-trained trio of Keegan ($4.40), Ultimate Focus ($5.50), and Kakadu ($8.50).
Richards has no firm winter plans with his two-win mare but is eyeing a trip north later this month as her next possible target.
“We will take it race-by-race,” he said. “There are a couple of meetings coming up at Ruakaka, where she has won previously.”
Richards is also set to line-up last-start synthetic placegetter Xplorer (NZ) (Embellish) and debutant He’s Xtra (Xtravagant) in the Cambridge Equine Hospital 1550.
“Xplorer raced well on it a fortnight ago,” Richards said. “He has got a bit of an awkward draw (9), which hopefully he will be able to overcome and get a bit of a sit somewhere.
“He’s Xtra trialled on it a fortnight ago and ran third. The horse that won that trial (Super Fly) won their next start at Ellerslie, so the form out of it isn’t too bad. Hopefully he will race well tomorrow.”