3 minute read

Grant Searle is hoping that his first win for the season will be a big one.

The Levin horseman has had just a handful of runners this term and has been patient with his Gr.1 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup contender and stable star Bel Sorriso.

Bel Sorriso has had only four runs since winning the Parliamentary Handicap (2200m) at Trentham in July.

“She doesn’t need a lot of racing,” Searle said. “She’s clean-winded and we didn’t want to give her too much racing on good tracks.

“But she can take one or two on good ground and I don’t think the conditions will be a problem this weekend.”

Four of Bel Sorriso’s five wins have come on heavy ground, but she has won on a dead track and finished a close second to Nashville in the Gr.3 Trentham Stakes in January.

The Keeper four-year-old is from a Zabeel mare and is a grand-daughter of the Wellington and New Zealand Cups winner Smiling Like, but cost just $5000 as a yearling.

“It [Auckland Cup] might be six months too soon for her but this has always been her main target this campaign,” Searle said.

Searle, who trained the champion youngster Our Maizcay, has won around 650 races in his career but has been an infrequent visitor to Ellerslie.

Our Maizcay won the Gr.3 Eclipse Stakes at his one appearance on the track and Kaapeon, Searle’s only previous Auckland Cup runner, was Group One-placed at Ellerslie.