It is only fitting that Nikki White has secured a place in next month’s Gr.3 Winning Edge Presentations 127th Winter Cup (1600m) with her gelding Balzano (NZ) (Shooting To Win), with few trainers experiencing wintery conditions like the Omakau trainer.
White is met by chilly temperatures and frosts most days at this time of year and has to work her team within a set time window in the afternoon where the ground has finally defrosted for the day.
“It is pretty hard training where I am because it is frozen, so we try and get them done around 3pm in the small window where it isn’t freezing,” White said.
“It has been -8 (degrees) for the last week and by 3pm it gets up to about two or three degrees, and it takes a little bit of edge off the track. It has been pretty trying.
“We have got between 2.30pm and 4pm that we can work them. I am not working them today (Thursday) because we have had a hoar frost all day and it isn’t lifting, so the ground is still frozen.
“I haven’t given them a day off (previously this week) because I knew one of these days would come up, so it is like their Sunday today, I worked them Sunday because I could.”
White said her team has adjusted to the chilly temperatures and enjoy being outside.
“I have their neck and bellies clipped because it is easier for them to dry, so it is a nice, warm wash when they come in,” she said. “They haven’t really grown a really thick winter coat because I have good blankets on them.
“They are double rugged, and it is only when it is snowing or raining that they are stabled. They actually don’t like being stabled, they like being in paddocks. It is a dry cold here, it isn’t a wet cold like they get down south. They handle it well.”
Rising four-year-old gelding Balzano has thrived in the cold environment and secured his place in the Winter Cup when winning over 1400m at Ashburton earlier this month.
It was a big step up from rating 65 to Open grade, with White admitting she only entered the race with her charge because of the lack of options available.
“My husband was up in Christchurch, and I thought if I was coming up I might as well chuck one in (at Ashburton), and that was the only race open to him,” she said.
“He is in the Winter Cup after winning that last race at Ashburton, so he got straight into that.”
Balzano was bought by White off gavelhouse.com for $25,000 and he has proven to be an astute purchase, running in the top four in all but one of his southern starts, and White believes he can feature once more in the Thank You Oamaru Jockey Club Supporters (1400m) at Oamaru on Sunday.
“He will be right there, he is full of it,” she said.
White will also line-up Claire’s Pal in the Robbie Lory Memorial (1400m) and Billy Lid in the Plunket Electrical (2200m).
“Claire’s Pal needs to go over ground but there wasn’t anything for him until the next meeting at Oamaru after the Winter Cup,” White said. “Billy Lid is back to a distance that he likes. He is a funny horse, he either loves it or he doesn’t, it is what he feels like on the day.”
