All things being equal, last season’s Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) winner Ocean Billy will step out for his first raceday assignment at Te Rapa next Saturday as he begins a campaign that could see him contest both the Gr.1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) and Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) later in the spring.
Trainer Bill Pomare has been bringing his pride and joy along quietly as he gets ready for the trip of a lifetime and is keen to see racing resume from its current hiatus due to the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown.
“Billy has been in work for a while now and he has come up a treat,” Pomare said.
“He’s very well and went to a jumpout at Matamata recently with three horses from the Te Akau Racing team and kept up with them nicely.
“He’s a very clean-winded type so he took improvement from that and is ready to resume at Te Rapa as long as racing is up and running by then.
“He can have a run in the Foxbridge Plate (Gr.2, 1200m) first-up and then we’ll go to an open handicap at Hastings over 1600m next.
“From there it will most likely be a middle distance race at Ellerslie and then we will fly over to Melbourne to get ready for the Caulfield Cup.”
Pomare admits he got a bit of a fright when he got a call from Greg Carpenter, the Executive General Manager Racing at Racing Victoria, recently regarding his Melbourne plans.
“Greg Carpenter rang me and asked me why I hadn’t nominated Billy for the Cups in Melbourne,” he said.
“I thought I still had a week or two to go before I had to do it, but he told me the nominations closed that day which got me going a bit.
“I said to him I definitely wanted to nominate so he took it there and then over the phone.
“I had a good talk to him about what weight I could expect and the like and he told me he would most likely get around 53.5kgs in both races, which I think is pretty fair.
“Greg also gave me the names of a few people to call to work out any details I need for when I’m over there, so I really appreciate the guidance he has provided.”
Pomare confirmed that leading South Island rider Chris Johnson would make the trip north to ride Ocean Billy in the Foxbridge Plate although a rider for races after that had yet to be decided.
