It’s not every day that you get to compete for $100,000 on your backdoor step, and Debbie Harris is hoping to make the most of that opportunity this weekend.
The New Plymouth trainer is set to line-up her in-form gelding Urenui in the $100,000 ITM New Plymouth Interprovincial (1600m), and the six-year-old has momentum on his side.
The son of Derryn has finished runner-up in his two starts this preparation, with both proving to be good form races.
Chase, the winner of Urenui’s first-up run last month, went on to win the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m) at Riccarton Park, while his last start vanquisher Pride Of Aspen recorded her third consecutive victory at Hawera on Sunday.
“It is pretty cool to see that the horses that are beating you are carrying on with it,” Harris said. “It definitely gives you a bit of confidence ahead of the race on Saturday.”
Harris is looking forward to competing for a six-figure purse on Saturday and representing their region.
“It’s a pretty good opportunity for the lower rated horses and hopefully he can get the job done,” she said.
Urenui will get home track advantage and Harris is hoping that is a winning factor.
“He has won a couple of races on his home track, so that always gives you a bit of confidence going into a race like that,” she said.
Harris has been pleased with Urenui’s progression this campaign, particularly given they had to overcome some feet issues early in the preparation.
“We had a few problems with his feet early on, but we seem to have sorted his feet out now,” she said.
“He has gone two really nice races, and he has been working super, so I am pretty happy with him.”
Urenui will jump from barrier 11 (coming into nine if there are no scratchings) on Saturday and will continue his association with apprentice jockey Jim Chung, whose two-kilogram claim will bring his impost down to 58kg.
“He is probably going to have to race handy, so it is not an ideal barrier, but we can’t choose our gate,” Harris said.
“Jimmy gets on really well with him, so we have kept him on and the couple of kilos off is going to help.
“Jimmy knows the horse well enough, so he should be able to get him out of the barriers and get reasonably handy.”
Harris has yet to map out a firm spring plan for Urenui, but a path might become more clear following Saturday’s run.
“At this stage, we haven’t looked too far ahead,” she said. “He will get over a bit of ground again this season, so we will see how he goes on Saturday and go from there.”
