Taranis has gone up 5.0 kg following his two good runs over the past three weeks in which he won the first and placed a very good 2½ lengths fourth in his latest run on Boxing Day.

He heads the handicaps at 56.0 kg going into the New Year’s Day Trophy highlighter at Caymanas Park today but should not be far away once again.

Despite its size, a very competitive field of seven native-bred four-year-olds and upward, NW3 Lifetime, other than in the New Year’s Day Trophy, will open the 10-race card going 1,300 metres for a purse of $800,000 with the first post at 12:25 pm.

The New Year’s Day Trophy programme opener is the acme event of the 121 runners declared. The most popular racing spread at the Park, however, is the $180,000 claiming spread that was oversubscribed on nomination day, and for this, the race will be run in two sections for the McKay Security Ltd Trophy secondary feature.

Section one will be run as the seventh race, while section two will be run as the ninth. Fields of 11 runners will compete in each section going 1,820 metres for the major shares of the separate purses of $750,000 on offer. Another interesting race on the day is the fifth race — the Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) Fan Appreciation Day Trophy, an Overnight Allowance event for three-year-olds and upward going over 1,820 metres.

In the day’s New Year’s Day highlighter, Taranis, trained by Richard Azan for breeder and owners Ham Stables Ltd (company), is an improving four-year-old chestnut colt by Adore The Gold out of Beware Baby that will be ridden by jockey Dane Nelson.

Nelson, the outgoing champion jockey who piloted Taranis to victory on December 5, returns to the saddle in place of the claiming apprentice, Bebeto Harvey, who rode on Boxing Day. The presence of Nelson aboard Taranis greatly enhances the colt’s chances of returning to the winner’s enclosure forthwith.

Ballon D’Or from the stables of Anthony Nunes continues to tumble down the weights, but is yet to show any improvement for it. So too is Shining Light, who managed a fair fourth on last, but this is a tougher assignment and the Gary Griffiths-trained chestnut colt, whose only career win came over today’s trip, was beaten by Taranis and the speedy Royal Assault into fourth place on Boxing Day on his second attempt.

But even so, with jockey Shamari Muir returning to the irons, Shining Light could grab another minor share.

Southern Cruise, the stablemate of Ballon D’Or, is experiencing reasonably good recent form, but the distance could be a trifle short in the present company even with the two-time champion jockey Shane Ellis returning to the saddle in place of jockey Jevvanne Erwin.

Dripping In Gold has the most appealing form of his rivals. Prepared for racing by Wayne DaCosta, the 15-time champion trainer for owners Elizabeth DaCosta and Bruce Levy, Dripping In Gold failed narrowly on last to carry through his early advantage and went down by a nose to Houdini’s Magic going over 100 metres longer distance. The near miss would have given theLiquidity colt his second consecutive win and his third career victory overall.

However, the dark bay son of Liquidity by Golden Olympio, is a course and distance winner and is again in the pink at present to make amends for his blip on last.Dripping In Gold is bred along sprinting lines with capable persevering qualities and will come in at a handy 52.5 kg for jockey Robert Halledeen and could run a cracker to open his four-year-old campaign with a positive effort and gain victory as he is feasibly handicapped after a 13-week respite.

Stablemate Mind Set with Natalie Berger astride seems to like it longer and has done very little to inspire confidence for a victory and can be given only a tentative chance. So, too, is Court Call, the ride of jockey Arthur Budhu for trainer Errol Pottinger.

Meanwhile, the Wayne DaCosta-trained down-in-class All Correct, who finished a good sixth by eight lengths toSeeking My Dream in the recent Diamond Mile over 1,600 metres, should be hard to beat in a race of this nature.

However, the seven-year-old dark bay gelding by Storm Craft out of Royal Pizza by Royal Minister should get some stiff competition from Houdini’s Magic and recent winner Brawn.

Ones To Watch

Race 1

Dripping In Gold (Robert Halledeen)

Race 2

Warrior Princess (Robert Halledeen)

Race 3

Iamallabouthebest (Robert Halledeen)

Race 4

Princess Shemika (Dane Nelson)

Race 5

All Correct (Omar Walker)

Race 6

Orpheus (Shane Ellis)

Race 7

Cutter (Rayan Wilson)

Race 8

Unbreakable (Chalrick Budhai)

Race 9

Perfect Flyer (Shane Ellis)

Race 10

Ras Emanuel (Dane Nelson)