Missing out on the Tattersall’s Tiara with Vergara is not the disaster it might seem for a stable reluctant to pass up on a Group One opportunity.
Vergara was the last of four emergency runners declared for the Tiara but the Anthony Cummings stable was content with her status, confident it had found a winnable alternative on her doorstep.
“It would have been a tough ask to go up there against the likes of Catkins, Avoid Lightning and Srikandi when there’s a race like this on offer in her backyard,” stable foreman Edward Cummings said.
And while the stable is rarely shy no matter the odds when it comes to Group One racing, Cummings said the chance to set Vergara up for a campaign at the back end of the spring with a possible Sydney win was too good to ignore.
“As unlikely as it would have been that she would gave got a run (in the Tiara), the race on Saturday comes up too well because she is so well in,” he said.
“Good draw, good rider, good form. There’s probably only one or two horses going as good or potentially better than her.”
The race in question is the Ranvet Handicap, the last of eight on what could be a bottomless Randwick after 65mm of rain fell on the track in the 24 hours up to 8.30am on Friday.
It features one definite spring hopeful in Magic Hurricane and Cummings says there is no reason Vergara couldn’t join the Godolphin import on the carnival trail.
“We’ll probably readjust our sights to the later part of the spring in Melbourne and work towards that,” he said.
After starting her campaign with a surprise Warwick Farm win, Vergara ran unplaced in two Group Three starts before clearing out for a Rosehill victory at her most recent outing.
Both victories were on soft-rated tracks and Cummings is clinging to those wet form statistics to rate Vergara among the top chances without really knowing how she will handle the conditions.
“She is consistently performing well on soft tracks but by the time that race rolls around it could very hard for any trainer to make any accurate assessment of your horse in the going,” he said.
