Didham duo to clash in Spring Sprint
The Peter and Trent Didham-trained pair of War Princess and Omega Boy are set to clash for the first time when they head to Hastings on Saturday week for the Gr.3 Timberspan Spring Sprint (1400m).
War Princess (NZ) (U S Navy Flag) has shown plenty of ability since winning on debut as a juvenile last year, adding six further wins to her record, including last season’s Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m).
She has come of age this season, winning her first two starts at Hastings, including the Heretaunga Hastings Premier (1300m) last Saturday, and the Didhams are hoping she can extend her winning streak at the track to three next week.
“She has just strengthened with a bit of time, but she has always had ability,” Peter Didham said. “She tries hard and you can put her where you want and it makes life a bit easier.
“She has come through Saturday’s run really well. We are probably happier with her this week than we were after the first win. She was perky this morning and went for a swim.
“At this stage, we will run her next Saturday in the Group Three (Spring Sprint).”
She will likely be met by her Group Two-winning stablemate Omega Boy (NZ) (Time Test), who has had just the one run this preparation, finishing 12th in the Gr.3 Metric Mile (1600m) at Trentham earlier this month, and Didham expects a bolder showing from his gelding second-up.
“He has just been a bit slower coming up in condition, being another year older, and he will probably go to the same race as War Princess,” Didham said. “He will be a little bit fitter than Trentham.”
Meanwhile, stablemate Lucullan (Rich Enuff) was a convincing winner of his 850m trial at Waipukurau on Tuesday, beating dual stakes winner Bona Sforza by a length.
“He has only had three gallops and it was just an 850m (trial) to bring him on, but he really jumped and ran today,” Didham said. “He was probably a bit more forward than I thought he was.
“He is carrying a fair bit of condition, and he is about three or four weeks away.”
The five-year-old gelding has won four and placed in three of his 13 starts date, and while looking forward to getting him back to the races, Didham said they will try and steer clear of Trentham.
“He hasn’t had that many starts and he is an above average horse,” Didham said. “Funnily though he doesn’t like Trentham. We have tried him three times at Trentham down the straight and he has gone horrible every time, and we thought he would win every time. We have then taken him somewhere else and he has won a few in a row.”
Looking ahead to the weekend, the stable will be represented by just the one runner at Hawera – Subtle Image (NZ) (Nadeem) in the Weir Tours Egmont Cup (2100m).
“We just didn’t get a line on him at Hastings last start, he had no luck, so we thought we would go one more just to see where we are at,” Didham said.
