Photo: Trish Dunell
After watching runners struggle through the testing track conditions in the first race at Randwick on Saturday Kiwi trainer Tony Pike was relieved the decision had been made to scratch the promising two-year-old Not An Option from his planned assignment on the day.
Temporarily in the care of Rosehill trainers Richard and Michael Freedman due to the current Covid-19 inspired conditions that restrict Pike from travelling to Australia, the Not A Single Doubt colt was set to have his first run back after a brief freshen up on Saturday but Pike was pleased the colt avoided a gutbuster before embarking on a hit and run raid to Queensland in a fortnight.
The Gr.1 JJ Atkins (1400m) is the main assignment for Not An Option who will now trial before venturing north for the juvenile feature at Eagle Farm on June 6.
“A heavy track and carrying 60kgs wasn’t ideal for him, so after watching the first race I was happy he didn’t run,” Pike said.
“He will go to the trials at Canterbury next Friday instead and if he goes well then he will head to Brisbane for the JJ Atkins.
“We will probably put the blinkers on him and the 1400m at Eagle Farm will be perfect for him.
“He’s had a ten-day break and a little freshen up and from what we have seen he should be very competitive.”
Like most New Zealand trainers Pike is currently working to get his team together for the restart of racing with up to twenty horses set to be back in action once racing kicks off in July.
“We are likely to have quite a few horses ready to race when we get started again,” he said.
“Often we haven’t had many at this time of the year as they have raced through the months we were in lockdown but this time they have had a break so we are likely to have a number of runners ready to kick off again.” – NZ Racing Desk
