Calder confident

TRISH DUNELL

CUP FAVOURITE: Amirar (Andrew Calder) wins at Te Rapa by 16 lengths at Te Rapa two starts back. She returns to the course for tomorrow's $80,000 Taumarunui Gold Cup.

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Andrew Calder is oozing confidence ahead of his ride on Amirar in tomorrow's $80,000 Taumarunui Gold Cup at Te Rapa.

The Cambridge jockey is reunited with the form stayer of the winter, having ridden the Jakki Good-trained Ekraar mare to wins at each of his last two rides on her.

Calder was holidaying in the United States earlier this month when Jason Collett stepped in to guide Amirar to a courageous win over Strapped For Cash in the Governor General's Cup at Avondale but yesterday said he was rapt to be back on the rising five-year-old mare for tomorrow's Listed 2100m feature.

''I'm really looking forward to it,'' he said.

''As soon as I got home I made sure I was still riding her and watched her last replay. I was quite excited to be back on her.''

Amirar will shoot for her fourth straight win tomorrow with Calder supremely confident of success.

''She's going really well and being at Te Rapa, that will really suit her as well, being a slightly better track,'' Calder said.

''She has gone really well there in there past and she gets in pretty nicely at the weights as well. She's won a restricted handicap and an open handicap in her last two starts but she's still only 2kg above the minimum.

''Having Strapped For Cash in there just to bring our weight down a bit probably helps us this week. She only goes up one more kilogram from when they last met and I wouldn't think that would be a great hindrance.

''The handicap conditions are ideal because she's at a good place in the weights.''

Calder's last ride on Amirar was at Te Rapa when she simply outclassed her rivals, winning with ridiculous ease by 16 lengths.

''She just annihilated them that day,'' Calder said.

''She surprised me how quickly she sprinted and how she kept up a sustained run right up to the post. If she had weakened out a bit, you would have forgiven her because I made her run from the 700m right to the post and she just kept quickening up too.

''She's unbeaten at the distance and if she can run somewhere near the form she's in at the moment, the way she's been racing, she'll take a hell of a lot of beating.

''The wide draw is a little bit of a question mark but it's not the worst thing to happen because then she's not going to be blocked in there. She can be a bit funny out of the gates sometimes and if that happens she's got a bit of time and room to recover.''

Amirar has won five of her 17 starts and an indication of how much Good rated her was that she pitted her in the Gr II Cal Isuzu 1600 Stakes at Te Rapa in December last year in just her fourth start for the stable following spring wins at Pukekohe and Te Rapa.

She was far from disgraced, finishing eighth behind Ekstreme, Dancing Jess and Veloce Bella, and four other Gr I or Gr II performers.

''She's come into this preparation as a Rating 80 horse and she has just kept improving,'' Calder said.

''Staying is her go - I don't think she's been beaten over a trip yet. She's only had these three races and she's won them all. She's an improving horse but this is probably the hardest test she's had this year.

''Jakki's team is going well at the moment with Run Like Al winning at Ruakaka last weekend and she's quietly confident as well, which is a good line on how the horse is going.''

Another guide is that Good has entered Amirar for the Gr I $250,000 Spring Classic (2040), formerly the Kelt Capital Stakes, at Hastings on October 2.

''Safely through Saturday, if she was to come out and win again, they've put a nomination in for the Kelt and whether that's too rich, we'll wait and see, but she can only but win and she's doing that pretty well at the moment,'' Calder said.

 Calder, who has immediately returned to the winner's circle on his first two days riding back at Ruakaka last weekend and Paeroa on Wednesday, will remain as stable jockey for Cambridge trainer Roger James next season and has set his sights on a much-improved tally of winners.

''I'll do a bit more travelling this year and try and get back up the premiership,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Rogan Norvall has picked up the ride on the Karen Bruce-trained Casual for the Taumarunui Cup.

Craig Grylls is booked for first emergency Solidarity but will switch to the Paul Jenkins-trained Just Once if that horse fails to make the field.

- © Fairfax NZ News