Marketplace NZ
YOUNG Kiwi star Marketplace will make his first Australian raid to chase the $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park in July.
Last season’s NZ 3YO Pacer of the Year boasts 13 wins from just 23 starts, including both outings this season. He already boasts four Group 1 wins.
Connections deliberated for 11 days after Marketplace’s latest Addington Group 2 Superstars win on May 8 before deciding to give the trip.
Trainer Regan Todd said Marketplace was booked on a flight to Sydney next Tuesday.
The gelding is set to have two lead-up races at Menangle before heading to Queensland.
“We’ll stay with Luke McCarthy and sort of break the trip up that way,” Todd said. “I want to go over nice and early to give him time to settle in.
“He won’t race again here (NZ) before he leaves. I’ll get him ready for Brisbane at Luke’s place and race him at Menangle, at least once, probably twice.”
Having a look at Menangle will also lay foundations for a possible return to the track early next year for the Miracle Mile.
Marketplace will clash with Australia’s champion mare and one of our most exciting pacers, Captains Mistress, in the Rising Sun on July 4.
Under the preferential draw conditions Captains Mistress being a mare means she will draw inside Marketplace, giving her a decided advantage.
Unlike Captains Mistress, who may press on to the $1 million Brisbane Inter Dominion final on July 18, Marketplace will head home after the Rising Sun.
"He doesn't need to be running into Leap To Fame on his home patch just yet," Todd said. "He'll go home and have a bit of a break before getting ready for (NZ) Cup time."
Captains Mistress returns from a freshen-up in a free-for-all at Menangle on Saturday night.
It’s her first run since brilliantly winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Mile at Menangle on May 2. It was her third Group 1 win in just eight starts since joining Jason Grimson’s stable late last year.
Australians, led by Leap To Fame, Swayzee and Kingman, have dominated the Kiwis for the past three years.
But Marketplace is part of a new brigade of young Kiwi pacers many think will turn the tide.
Fellow Kiwi four-year-old Got The Chocolates, high-class five-year-old The Lazarus Effect and untapped three-year-old Jumal are the others.
While Got The Chocolates and The Lazarus Effect are having breaks with a view to NZ Cup time, a decision on whether Jumal heads to Brisbane in coming weeks will be made after he tackles Friday night’s Group 1 NZ Sires Stake final at Addington.
PHOTO: HRNZ/Race Images NZ
