Richard French has compared his stable star Marotiri Miss favourably to the condition she was in when she ran second in last year's Gr.3 Winter Cup at Riccarton.
The Palmerston North trainer produced the Al Akbar mare to finish second to Karla Bruni in last year's 1600m feature and was pleased with the rising eight-year-old as she prepares for Saturday's eStar-sponsored event.
"I'm pretty confident of a good run. As long as the race goes to plan, I'm pretty confident of finishing in the top three."
Marotiri Miss' chances got a boost on Wednesday when runaway last-start winner Spoke To Carlo was not among the final field of 18 plus six emergencies."Yeah, it's one we don't have to worry about but there are 17 others we have to gun down at the same time," French said.
"It's a very even field, probably with a lot more exposed form than there was last year."Marotiri Miss, who was booked to cross the Cook Strait on Thursday, rates as a leading form runner, having finished in the top four in her last five starts, including her North Island Challenge Stakes win at Trentham and last-start second to Taurus at Awapuni.
"She's in brilliant order. Just with the trip up to the Opunake Cup when the races were called off, that was enough to get her thinking and got her into the right spot," said French, who has again booked Chris Johnson for the ride."It was a good run at Awapuni the other day. It was a tough run because the track was bad but she hasn't let us down all season."
Safely through Saturday's race Marotiri Miss could back up in Winter Classic (1800m) at Riccarton seven days later before heading north for a date with Rich Hill Stud stallion Shocking in early September."She's nominated for the Windsor Park Plate at Hastings but we'll just assess that at the time," French said of the September 19 1600m Group One weight-for-age event.
