Windy conditions setting up puggy track which makes it harder for Platinum Bordeaux

Trainer Lisa Latta is hoping the windy conditions in Palmerston North don’t sabotage the chances of promising filly Platinum Bordeaux on Saturday.

The Per Incanto filly takes on older horses in the opening event at Awapuni but with significant weight relief and an extra 300 metres is being kept very safe by bookies as a $7 chance.

But while the track is a heavy 10 today and Platinum Bordeaux has handled worse conditions, there’s little rain in the forecast.

“My main worry is that there’s a lot of wind here and the track could end up very puggy and sometimes it’s hard to make up ground from the back when it’s like that.”

Platinum Bordeaux’s back-running style was against her last time when she was doing her best work late at Waverley in a three-year-old maiden race, closing to within 3.3 lengths of winner Glamour.

“They were running on speed that day and it was only 1100 metres so she will really appreciate the step-up to 1400 metres.”

The filly also will carry the lightest weight in the race with apprentice Kozzi Asano able to claim down to 52.5kg.

Latta hopes Platinum Bordeaux is up to competing in black type races so in a moderate field on Saturday would like to see her get right into the action.

“She will get over a bit of ground though so will be better after Christmas.”

Lincoln Dreamer … back runner whose seventh was better than it looked on paper last time.Latta would also like to see the track looser for Lincoln Dreamer in the sixth race but says he has previously handled Awapuni when it’s been holding.

The five-year-old’s run for seventh at Wanganui last week was also better than it looked on paper, she says.

“He got held up on the inside on a day when it was hard to make up ground from the back.”

Latta suspects that while Lincoln Dreamer is coming back in distance by 200 metres, the testing nature of the track will counteract that.

“It could play into our hands.”

With little or no rain likely, Platinum Volos is expected to start in the last race over 1600 metres, not the fifth over 1300 metres for which he is still first on the ballot.

But Latta admits it’s a bit of an experiment wth a horse whose previous best form has all been at 1200 metres.

“He has been getting to the line in his recent starts so we wanted to try him over a mile.

“He ran a good race at Wanganui last time in open class and this is a step down.”

On borrowed time

Latta treks to Rotorua on Sunday for one of the season’s few remaining jumps races for Manhattan Street, who she says is on borrowed time.

But Latta fears the answers his owners Lincoln Farms and Neville McAlister are looking for might be lost in holding ground.

“He’s always needed a loose, wet track and doesn’t look like getting it.”

Decisions on whether the horse comes back next season will have to be made soon so Latta is looking for the kind of dash that saw him place in his hurdles debut, rather than the weaker efforts of his Riccarton campaign.

The signs were positive that jumping has improved his fitness when, reverting to the flat last time at Waverley, he ran a close third over 1400 metres.

He will race in blinkers on Sunday.