Nipster to have it easy

NIPSTER, undoubtedly the best horse in the country, pound for pound, when running in excess of six and a half furlongs, gets a gift in Saturday's Chairman's Trophy, another Graded Stakes/Open Allowance event in which topweight is determined by distance.

In the bastardised group created to incorporate the two or three 'A'Class (Graded Stakes) horses within the level below (Open Allowance), the top-rated runner is automatically assigned 130lb if the distance is seven furlongs and below. For trips in excess of seven, the topweight carries 126lb.

Therefore, last year, TOONA CILIATA, carrying 130lb, was beaten into fifth place in the said Chairman's Trophy by SENTIENT when the trip was cut back to seven furlongs.

Apart from playing willy-nilly with the distance of the Chairman's Trophy, the no-no of assigning weight, based on trip, goes against every grain of handicapping, found nowhere in a handicapper's handbook, except Caymanas Park's racing office, which has an unseen rating system for runners competing in Graded Stakes/Open Allowance events.

Maintaining the practice of allotting weight by distance is merely gift-wrapping the Chairman's Trophy for NIPSTER, running with 126lb, a mockery, especially to SENTIENT at 118lb, who wasn't even in Robert Halledeen's rear-view mirror on Boxing Day when giving up three pounds at eight and a half furlongs.

TOONA CILIATA, carrying 126lb then, also got his fair share of hiding from NIPSTER on Boxing Day, all of eight lengths. He returns with 121lb, down five pounds, but still has much to find against the Horse of the Year, who has really been flexing his muscles at exercise, almost showing off for his new barn since moved from Gary Subratie to Anthony Nunes.

Champion owner Michros has packed Halledeen among his belongings, retaining the confident jock aboard his runners, which are now spread between Patrick Lynch and Nunes, maintaining the all-important synergy of horse and rider.

Lightweights ROY ROGERS and FATHER PATRICK will ensure a pace that suits NIPSTER, a deadly closer if there was ever one. His annihilation of MAHOGANY on Boxing Day was the performance of the year, stalking the pace from seventh before swooping down into third at the top of the lane, hitting the front before Dane Dawkins realised what had happened, despite perfectly rating his mount on the lead.

MAHOGANY had clocked 1:16.1 at six and a half furlongs two weeks earlier and ran a helluva race, finishing fourth in a scramble with SENTIENT and TOONA CILIATA, neither of whom weren't even close when Halledeen found NIPSTER's sixth gear leaving the furlong pole.