Trainer keeping eye on weather

Otaki trainer Howie Mathews has big plans this summer for promising young stayer Snake Gully, who is listed to kick off a fresh campaign at Waverley today.

Snake Gully is down to resume in the rating 80 Clarendon Hotel 1400 at the Waverley Racing Club's early spring fixture.

That's providing track conditions are not too testing on the day.

Mathews was in a quandary yesterday after hearing the weather forecast, which predicted rain for the lower North Island.

He said while he was thrilled how Snake Gully had come up this preparation he was reluctant to run him first up on a heavy track.

"Snake Gully does sprint well fresh, but I don't want him to pull his guts out on a wet track first up," Mathews said.

The field for the Clarendon Hotel was small to start with and, with topweight Vim expected to be scratched from the race because of heat in a foreleg, it will be reduced to a maximum of just six runners.

Snake Gully has only been out in public once since last racing.

That was a 1200m trial on his home track when finishing a close second behind open handicapper Butch James.

"He went an awesome trial," Mathews said.

"Lisa Allpress, who rode him, was really rapt in the way he went and said he was coming up really well."

Snake Gully has won four of 20 races and paid a dividend on a further five occasions.

The Jahafil gelding scored back-to-back middle distance victories against rating 70 and 80 company after winning the rating 80 Summer Cup over 2100 metres on his home track two months earlier.

"If he can win a couple more races this spring I'll set him for a race like the Waikato Cup later in the year. I think a race like that would suit him," Mathews said.

Hardest for Snake Gully to beat today look to be Goldmist and Our White Knight, both up-and-coming types that have displayed solid form on rain affected tracks during winter.

- © Fairfax NZ News