Bakers saving their dollars

The much-travelled Kiwi training team of Murray Baker and his son Bjorn are using their calculators a lot these days – busily converting Australian dollars into the New Zealand equivalent.

Today the conversion rate was $NZ1.339 to the $AUD1.00, which makes the three hour flight across the Tasman a valuable exercise with the right horse.

Murray Baker (pictured), from his Cambridge base, was scouring the Melbourne racing programs last weekend when he came across two races at Moonee Valley on Friday that weren’t initially on his radar – the $150,000 (make that $NZ200,850) Moonee Valley Night Cup (2500m) and the $100,000 ($NZ133,900) Listed Typhoon Tracy Stakes (1200m) for three-year-old fillies.

Baker already has Group 1 Australian Guineas contender We Can Say It Now working along strongly at Flemington out of the Danny O’Brien stables.

Without hesitation he booked his filly Twilight Savings on the first plane out of Auckland for the Typhoon Tracy, while Mr Tipsy, who had failed in last week’s Hobart Cup, was already on his way across Bass Strait after the Bakers missed the nominations for the Launceston Cup. The Moonee Valley Night Cup became an ideal substitute race and much easier assignment.

A study of the conditions meant that well-performed Twilight Savings got into her race, run under set weights and penalty conditions, on the 55kg minimum. The filly is a winner of four of her nine starts, including an open age weight-age-age sprint, the Listed Lion Red Stakes (1200m), at Rotorua in October. She followed that with a third behind the crack colt Jimmy Choux in the Group1 NZ 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton before backing up a week later to finish second behind the star filly King’s Rose in the Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas (1600m, Riccarton). Twilight Savings’ only run since was a ninth behind Mufhasa on a wet track at Trentham in the Group 1 Telegraph Stakes (1200m) on January 22.

“Because of the low prizemoney in New Zealand, her weight-for-age win was worth only $NZ28,000 to the winner, well under the threshold for the conditions of a Group or Listed winner (of $AUD45,000), which would have given her the minimum penalty of an extra kilo,” Baker said.

“She looks pretty well in for a Stakes-winning filly placed at Group 1 level.”

Mr. Tipsy finished a disappointing 13^th of 16 behind Big Spotter in the Hobart Cup on February 13. Baker said the big-striding gelding didn’t handle the tight Elwick circuit. “He just didn’t get into the race, he’s going a lot better than that.”

Mr. Tipsy won the Listed Marton Cup (2200m) at Awapuni on January 15. He was last in Melbourne in the 2009 spring when he finished last behind Alcopop in the Group 2 Herbert Power Handicap (2400m) at Caulfield. Subsequently, he was found to have a wind problem, which has been operated on.

In the 2009 autumn, Mr Tipsy finished third behind Ista Kareem in the Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m, Randwick), and he only needs to show something of his best form to test his rivals at the Valley.

Michael Rodd will ride both Bakers-trained horses. Twilight Savings has drawn poorly in barrier 14; Mr Tipsy will come from barrier seven.