Ritchie’s Tajana ready to improve in Breeders’ Stakes

New Zealand trainer Shaune Ritchie could have an exciting few weeks ahead of him on both sides of the Tasman, with Tuxedo on target for next month’s Five Diamonds in Sydney, but his immediate attention is at Hawera on Saturday.

The stable’s Group 1-performed Tajana will bid to add to her stakes haul in the Group 3 Grangewilliam Stud Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes after the daughter of Darci Brahma was placed first-up over 1300m at Ellerslie last month.

Ritchie suggested Tajana derived plenty of benefit from that outing.

“She has had a month between runs and just peaked on her run last time,” he said. “I felt she went through to win. Sam McNab rode her and got up the inside there and just flatlined that last few hundred.

“She hasn’t missed a day’s work and she is galloping like she’s significantly improved too. She will need to, it is a good version of the race this year.

“If the fence holds up from barrier one, and she can just get a spot or two handier than she normally does, a bit like Waitak the other day, that would be advantageous. But she does have a bit of a habit being sluggish out of the gates, so hopefully she can use that barrier a little bit more than what she has in the past.”