Jumal to miss Ashburton but on target for NZ Derby

By Michael Guerin

Superstar three-year-old Jumal will bypass Monday’s mega meeting at Ashburton.

But trainer Steven Reid says there is nothing wrong with the last-start Flying Stakes winner and he is still very much on target for the New Zealand Derby at Addington next month.

Jumal was expected to line-up in the $40,000 Showcase for three-year-old male pacers on what is a star-studded meeting but Reid decided to let him miss the race.

“The way the conditions of the race were, being a sequential draw, he would have had the hardest run over 1700m,” says Reid.

“That could be really hard work at Ashburton, although to be honest I expected a bigger field and was thinking it would have been even harder.”

Reid says he is happy to miss the race as Jumal was slightly flat even after bolting away with the Flying Stakes two weeks ago.

“It wasn’t so much that run as the hard run the start before so I am comfortable easing up on him.

“So he will trial next week then head to the NZ Derby Prelude on November 6 and then the Derby two weeks later.”

While Jumal will bypass Monday the age group races are stacked with talent while the Flying Stakes has most of the stars from last Friday’s Canterbury Classic backing up.

The one race missing some of the big names that might have been expected to be there is the Trotters Sprint with Habibti Pat being allowed to miss it and trainers Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan electing to let both Higher Power and Meant To Be bypass it.

“They almost certainly won’t race again until the Dominion and will just go to the Cup trials instead,” says Purdon.