Mr Consistency eyes Rowe Cup mission

Stylish Monarch told trainer Murray Tapper what he wanted to know yesterday – now he's going to reward him with a mid-summer break at the beach.

Tapper's reason for running trotting's Mr Consistency in yesterday's United Fisheries Free-for-all was to find out if he would be competitive against the big guns like Springbank Richard and Houdini Star.

Just running a placing would have been enough to convince him it was worth taking the horse north for the $250,000 Rowe Cup in May.

Instead, the six-year-old latecomer to racing upstaged them all with his now trademark late dash, photo-finishing ahead of Leighton Hest and Makarewa Sun, with the favourites failing to fire.

"I certainly wasn't expecting to win," Tapper said yesterday. "But we got the run and Ricky [May] drove him a treat.

"I'll give him an easy time now for the next seven or eight weeks.

"I'm going to send him to a mate's place and he can take him to the beach and jog him round the roads.

"He's been up for a long time and if I want to race in May I need to give him a break to make him feel good.

"I don't want to turn him out because he's such a great doing horse it would take months to get him back [into trim] again."

Tapper plans to venture north at Easter time and give Stylish Monarch two or three races before the Rowe Cup to get him used to the right- handed way of racing in Auckland.

But given how easy Stylish Monarch has been to train since the day breeder Anne Patterson gave him the horse as a late four-year-old, he isn't expecting any problems.

"He's been a professional from day one – he never worries about anything – he'll go home now and eat up and be happy."

Stylish Monarch, who is in only his second prep, now boasts an enviable record of 10 wins and six placings from only 21 starts.

- © Fairfax NZ News