TAKING AIM AT A HOME-TOWN CUP

By Graham Potter | Thursday, September 21, 2023

It’s home-town Cup-time for the Corey and Kylie Geran training partnership and the betting says they are in the pound seats with the in-form Nikau Spur marked up as dominant favourite for the big race.

Early in the race-week, co-trainer Corey Geran spoke to James O’Shea on Racing Nation about Nikau Spur and his feelings going into the race. Geran’s informed comments are repeated below.

On the excitement and anticipation of the occasions:

“To come into this race is a big thrill in itself, but to come in as favourite is pretty special. The only one thing that can beat that most likely is winning it.

On the path Nikau Spur has taken to the Cup:

“If you’d asked me about it a few months ago I would have been pretty sceptical. We sort of bought this horse for the Rocky Cup. That was the original plan … a few Cup races like that.

“Kobie O’Brien picked him out. I didn’t mind him when said he had bought him. I wasn’t overly sold on him to be quite honest … and then I got him here and he is a magnificent horse. He is a beautiful looking horse. He has got a great nature on him.”

On the feedback received on Nikau Spur’s profile prior to coming into the stable … the change and how the change came about.

“He came from Ciaron Maher’s. They told us he needed a soft track or he’s ineffective and his sort of trip down there was up to 1500m.

“Now he has won on a good track here and got up to 2200m. Just doing things a little bit different with him has been the key. The biggest thing we did was just put a set of blinkers on him and that has just rejuvenated him so much.”

On the form turnaround?

“He actually hadn’t won for something like seven hundred days before he won that race for us at Eagle Farm over the 1800m. At that stage, stepping up to the 1800m was a question mark. We didn’t know how we’d go at that … and he came out and won it fairly well. That was the first run with blinkers on. Mark Du Plessis came back and said, ‘He wants further.’

“So, we stepped him up to 2000m and he came out and he won that. Then we stepped him up to 2200m.

“The horse is so tough. He is such a good doer. He comes home and smashes his feed and absolutely bucks his brands off the following day. He is a really happy horse at the moment.”

On the jockey change for the Cup?”

“Mark Du Plessis (Nikau Spur’s regular rider) is a good rider and a good bloke. It is a bit of a shame he can’t come up, but he had commitments to go to Japan and see his daughter which he had booked in twelve months before. Mark was pretty shattered about it. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do about that.

“Obviously the backup would have been the old man (Gary Geran), but he is a bit heavy at the moment, so we have gone with Ben Thompson who will carry the 53.5kg. Ben is obviously a Group rider … a very accomplished rider and I’m very confident having him on."

On having Nikau Spur as ready as he can be for this important assignment.

“With everything up to this point in time, he is in tip-top shape. He is feeling a million bucks. He’ll have just a bit of easy work and then he’ll probably go and do a bit of jumping the day before the race. That keeps his mind fresh. The horse is very well. I don’t think I could get him any fitter.”

On what a home-town Cup win would mean to the Geran team training partnership.

“We’ve had runners here the last three years, since we moved back to Toowoomba from the Sunshine Coast, and each year the quality of the horses we are bringing here is improving … and to be involved on the scale we are now is certainly a good achievement.

“For anyone to win a home-town come would be pretty good. Being born and bred here, for me it would be pretty special."

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