John Bary is confident Spring Tide (Darci Brahma) won’t find the distance beyond him when he contests the Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) at Hastings on Saturday.

Runner-up in the last two editions of the Gr.1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m), Spring Tide has only raced once past that distance, finishing eighth in last year’s renewal of Saturday’s event while in the stable of Foxton trainer Chrissy Bambry.

However, that race came at the end of a seven-race winter campaign, and it was on a track rated a Good4, conditions in which Spring Tide has yet to finish in the top three in four starts.

The Hastings track was rated a Heavy9 on Tuesday morning and with more rain forecast Bary expects a Heavy10 rating come Saturday.

“Last year he may have been coming to the end of it, but I didn’t have him last year and so I can’t really comment,” Bary said.

“But in my experience this year, I’m very comfortable he’s going to get a mile. He is quirky, but provided he loads and everything goes well there, he’s a live chance when the gates open.”

The Arrowfield Stud Plate will be just the second raceday start for Spring Tide in Bary’s stable, and he said the horse’s preparation has been very unusual for him.

“Nowhere near have I galloped him the same way I have my other Group One horses. I’ve just let him do it on his own – whatever he wanted to do, let him be a horse,” he said.

“I felt he didn’t need it – he’d raced a couple of times in the winter so he had that residual fitness, and as a horse he just mentally didn’t need to gallop a lot, so we’ve just played his game and he’s a happy horse doing things nicely.”

With leading Tarzino players Dark Destroyer and Imperatriz absent, Bary should have a good chance of adding to previous victories he’s scored in this race with Jimmy Choux (2011) and Callsign Mav last year.

“His gallop was very good this morning,” Bary said. “The rain certainly doesn’t disadvantage him as much as a couple of the better ones.”

-NZ Racing Desk