For all my childhood and the first 30 years of adult life, one of the highlights of the year in Auckland was Auckland Cup week. Held annually over the Xmas/New Year period, the cup itself was always held on New Year's Day, and attracted crowds of 15-20,000.

The cup was won by some of the giants of New Zealand racing: Blue Denim, Drum, Kotare Chief, Rustler and the unforgettable champ who went on to win the biggest of them, the Melbourne Cup: Jezabeel.

In its infinite wisdom, the Auckland Racing Club decided to move the contest to March. The plan was the horses would contest the NZ, Wellington and Auckland Cups - all over two miles, to give Kiwis a shot at building another Melbourne Cup winner. To this end, some enormous prizes were offered for horses that could win two, or all three of the events.

The problem is that the number of NZ horses capable of running 3200 metres competitively is tiny.

With still five days to the race, there are 19 horses left in contention, and at least a couple of them wouldn't be out of place in front of a cart instead of behind the starting barrier.

It must easily be the weakest Auckland Cup field in history. Yes, the Wellington Cup winner is there, but that was hardly a vintage field and the average price of winners at Wellington over the carnival was about $40, so form from the meeting can be taken with a grain of salt.

That stayers here are weak has been signalled for some time, and has been taken advantage of by some clever Australian trainers who have managed a couple of lightning raids to take the prize back over the ditch. A classic example is Yo Bro, a galloper who easily won the NZ Group 1 Auckland Cup, but who wasn't good enough to place in a top race in Australia.

3200 metres is the ultimate test for horses and few would run more than one in a year - outside of England, where they have soft tracks protecting them. Expecting a horse in NZ conditions to run three 3200m races in the space of four months is plain crazy and instead of the best of the best arriving at Auckland, we've ended up with the rest left standing.

No matter - that may give an opportunity for a good priced victory for someone, and I'm saying it will be Storming the Tower. A great bet at $61. Forget his Tauranga run - Tauranga is a weird track and some horses just don't like it.

He goes well at Ellerslie and ran a good fourth on Boxing Day.

John Bell will have him cherry ripe and he will get the softest of soft runs from #4 barrier. He'll pay $10 a place on the day, and probably more when the fixed odds place prices come out.

Get on!.

 

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