NZ Cup - Who will finish last?

[cherry_bomb 89]

There is honour in defeat. While the connections of one of these ‘stayers’ will collect the cup and squeak an awkward apology over the Riccarton PA there will be 11 others who manage to skulk away in silence.
One of the jockeys will sit and smile broadly to himself in the weighing room after having to give up at the 1200 when his charge snorted, wheezed and shortened stride at the first ask for any effort. Never a hope the jockey smirks, so bad I didn’t even have to ride out for 8th place prizemoney.
For most races my formbook-grinding winner-picker machine works on merit. For this average rating 83 lot though the settings were reversed so that it spat out the worst horses first.

Here are the results

Last - Gobstopper. Preferred racing style is to be a pacemaker for the other runners and then drop out to finish last. This has worked on 4 out of his 20 starts and can continue here.
11th - Bee Tee Junior. Will pull out and whack away in front of the grandstand first time around.
10th - Villa Elba. Earned the comment "too good" on trip to Southland. Something of a prerequisite I would have thought. Followed that win up with a "strong finish" to get within 8 lengths of a r68-er, whose form since reads 6-2-8-6-10. Carries the Zabeel line with shame.
9th - Kaharau. As ridiculous as it is that a horse with the Banks Peninsular Cup as its greatest achievement is topweight in the NZ Cup, he won't be finishing last, even with an extra 4.5kg on top of an average effort in last year's renewal.
8th - Zentangle. This one knows the game. Avoids effort by shaping to want a trip but when sent a yard over 2000m disappears in a puff of smoke.
7th - Sureasyouwereborn. Another jaded journeyman. Plods around in anything over 2000m with occasional success. Consistently mediocre. When your sire is named Lucky Unicorn you can only ever be a disappointment, and this one does not disappoint.
6th - Nothing Trivial. A trolling late entry. Well played by connections who rightly think that their sprinter-sired snowflake has a chance off his $10k Waikato hurdles win 9 seasons ago.
5th - Locally Sauced. This beast racked up over $40k in stakes after only 37 starts. What's more, it's only 6. Will be conserving energy for 10 further racedays before Christmas.
4th - Imperium. "Never a hope" in the Avondale Cup is encouragingly bad. Out of Ethereal and while there is only so far an apple can fall from a tree this one found a hill to roll down.
3rd - She's Poppy. No wins or placings from 5 starts on good gives the only hope of a poor run.
2nd - Sampson. Rarely puts in a stinker, wins good races. No interest here.

Which leaves us with...
 

1st - Pentathlon. Could be pulled up at the 1200 and still beat half this field home.

[Ohokaman 5,825]

4 hours ago, Sandpiper said:

There is honour in defeat. While the connections of one of these ‘stayers’ will collect the cup and squeak an awkward apology over the Riccarton PA there will be 11 others who manage to skulk away in silence.
One of the jockeys will sit and smile broadly to himself in the weighing room after having to give up at the 1200 when his charge snorted, wheezed and shortened stride at the first ask for any effort. Never a hope the jockey smirks, so bad I didn’t even have to ride out for 8th place prizemoney.
For most races my formbook-grinding winner-picker machine works on merit. For this average rating 83 lot though the settings were reversed so that it spat out the worst horses first.

Here are the results

Last - Gobstopper. Preferred racing style is to be a pacemaker for the other runners and then drop out to finish last. This has worked on 4 out of his 20 starts and can continue here.
11th - Bee Tee Junior. Will pull out and whack away in front of the grandstand first time around.
10th - Villa Elba. Earned the comment "too good" on trip to Southland. Something of a prerequisite I would have thought. Followed that win up with a "strong finish" to get within 8 lengths of a r68-er, whose form since reads 6-2-8-6-10. Carries the Zabeel line with shame.
9th - Kaharau. As ridiculous as it is that a horse with the Banks Peninsular Cup as its greatest achievement is topweight in the NZ Cup, he won't be finishing last, even with an extra 4.5kg on top of an average effort in last year's renewal.
8th - Zentangle. This one knows the game. Avoids effort by shaping to want a trip but when sent a yard over 2000m disappears in a puff of smoke.
7th - Sureasyouwereborn. Another jaded journeyman. Plods around in anything over 2000m with occasional success. Consistently mediocre. When your sire is named Lucky Unicorn you can only ever be a disappointment, and this one does not disappoint.
6th - Nothing Trivial. A trolling late entry. Well played by connections who rightly think that their sprinter-sired snowflake has a chance off his $10k Waikato hurdles win 9 seasons ago.
5th - Locally Sauced. This beast racked up over $40k in stakes after only 37 starts. What's more, it's only 6. Will be conserving energy for 10 further racedays before Christmas.
4th - Imperium. "Never a hope" in the Avondale Cup is encouragingly bad. Out of Ethereal and while there is only so far an apple can fall from a tree this one found a hill to roll down.
3rd - She's Poppy. No wins or placings from 5 starts on good gives the only hope of a poor run.
2nd - Sampson. Rarely puts in a stinker, wins good races. No interest here.

Which leaves us with...
 

1st - Pentathlon. Could be pulled up at the 1200 and still beat half this field home.

Interesting stuff Sandpiper. Think you are a bit rough on a couple there. Gobstopper is by Tavistock out of a Zabeel mare and if he got a soft lead, could take running down. Might want some give in the ground though. Bee Tee Junior has won at 2400m and Ritchie is a pretty astute conditioner.

Agree with Pentathlon though. His latest racing has been against much better than these.