Rotorua and Doomben outlook: One Platinum needs rain on the day, the other wants it to end

The weather gods on both sides of the Tasman will determine the fortunes of Platinum Invador and Platinum Rapper on Saturday.

Platinum Invador ($13) goes into the A$150,000 JRA Chairman’s Trophy needing the Doomben track to improve on its heavy 9 rating to have any chance.

And Platinum Rapper ($31) tackles the $75,000 Rotorua Cup, desperate for the forecasters to be correct in predicting 12ml of rain on race morning to loosen up the heavy footing.

Neville McAlister … shot at the stumps from the boundary.Neville McAlister, who races the pair with Lincoln Farms, admits tackling the Rotorua Cup is like having a shot at the cricket stumps from right out on the boundary and hoping for a hit.

While the Rapper’s rap sheet might indicate she revels in the wet, with three of her four wins in heavy going, McAlister says “she’s actually no good on a heavy track.”

“All her heavy track form was aged two and three with rain on the day so the track was loose.

“And now that she’s older she seems to have changed and likes better tracks.”

When Platinum Rapper ran one of her best races for a close third in the 2019 Challenge Stakes behind Dolcetto and Rosewood it was on the sandy Wanganui track which was also very loose.

“We’re seeing if we can find something else she likes. Rotorua is pumicey so we’ll see if she can get through it. We don’t really know.”

McAlister says it doesn’t seem to matter what opposition the mare tackles. “If she cops the track she goes well, if not it’s a disaster. You could put her in a rating 70 and if the track didn’t suit her she wouldn’t try.”

The two recent duck eggs in Platinum Rapper’s form line don’t actually reflect how she’s going:

• Last start in the Group III Travis Stakes at Te Rapa she copped a terrible trip, three wide from the 1400 metres and
• In the Listed Anzac Mile, she failed to handle a slow 8 at Awapuni and was also slow away.

Before that the mare ran a fine third behind Savy Yong Blonk in the Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes, run in dead 4 footing.

“If she goes well on Saturday we might consider the Ipswich Cup (A$175,000, 2150m, June 19) or the Caloundra Cup (A$175,000, 2400m, July 3) but that’s real pie in the sky stuff.

“She’s coming to the end of it. She’s had three placings in black type races and and we’re not too far off looking at the breeding barn with her.”

Nose dive

Platinum Invador’s hopes for the Chairman’s took a nose dive when 28ml of rain was recorded at Doomben in the last day.

But McAlister himself foreshadowed the likelihood of a heavy track at Doomben after the horse ran a first-up bottler under 61kg at Eagle Farm on May 1.

“Eagle Farm, with its good drainage system, can cop the rain but Doomben gets heavy like New Zealand.”

McAlister is hoping caretaker trainer Barry Lockwood is correct in his assessment that the footing could come back to a soft 7 with no more rain forecast before the race.

“He needs good ground - his only form on slow tracks was when winning against maiden and 1-win horses.”

Right-handed Doomben, with its 1715 metre circumference and tight turns won’t suit Platinum Invador.Doomben, a tight 1715 metre track with a short 314 metre home straight, will also be against Platinum Invador.

“It’s a leader based track which is not conducive to getting home from the back like he does.

“Platinum Kingdom loved it when he won there in 2013 (Fred Best, Group III). He sat close to the speed and the three-year-old hotpot Sizzling couldn’t get into it. But Sizzling went on and won the Queensland Guineas easily at Eagle Farm.

“If this had been at Eagle Farm I’d have a lot more confidence but they kick off the front at Doomben.

“If they bowl along at a fast clip we just have to hope he’ll keep grinding home. If they go slow and ping, he’s no chance. It all depends on how the race is run.

“Hopefully he’ll be running home strongly and finish thereabouts. Ideally we could run a place.

“Barry’s very happy with him.”

Platinum Invador will be suited by the step-up to 2000 metres on Saturday but is inconvenienced by a wide barrier and is rated a $13 chance in early betting behind topweight Hang Man.

His next two targets are both at Eagle Farm, the A$200,000 Premier’s Cup (2400m) on May 29 and either the A$1.2 million Q22 (wfa 2200m) or A$400,000 Brisbane Cup (3200m) on June 12.