A relieved Wayne Marshment is prepared to give Trentham a second chance and let his quality mare O’Fille take her place in next Saturday’s Gr.2 Wellington Cup.
The Wanganui horseman was one of many disgruntled trainers on Saturday due to the hard nature of the track and was thankful his stable star came to no serious harm after her unplaced effort in the Gr.3 Trentham Stakes.
“I was worried about her and if I had known it was going to be a Fast 1 I would never have gone there in the first place,” Marshment said.
“They didn’t upgrade it until after her race. They race at Randwick and places like that every week and the tracks are magic.”
Marshment said O’Fille had come through the ordeal relatively well and her recovery pointed to a bold showing in the Platinum Homes Wellington Cup.
“She’s been to the beach and she’s really good so at this stage she’s going to start in the cup. She’s licked her bowl clean and she did hit out well at the beach.”
A luckless seventh in the cup last year, O’Fille is currently a $10 chance for the feature, in which her regular rider Noel Harris will return from suspension to take the mount.
“Noel’s rung a couple times and he said he’s more than happy to go along with whatever we do,” Marshment said.
Harris has developed a grand rapport with the O’Reilly mare and has ridden her in five of her six wins, including Group Three successes in last season’s Trentham and Cuddle Stakes and a second placing in the Gr.1 Zabeel Stakes at Ellerslie.
More Than Sacred currently heads the Wellington Cup market at $3 with Guns At Five ($5) and Annie Higgins ($7) the only other runners at a single figure quote.
