HULKING sprinter Hay List has a weight problem. Trainer John McNair has no idea where the four kilograms have come from or where they are hiding on his huge frame leading into Saturday's All Aged Stakes at Randwick.
McNair declared Hay List a couple of lengths better than when he tested champion mare Black Caviar in the TJ Smith on April 9. However, the scales never lie, and the five-year-old has put on 4kg since the run.
''I don't know where it is,'' McNair said. ''I'm usually a good judge of a horse's weight by looking at them but when I weighed him and he was 4kg more than before the TJ, I thought the scales were wrong.
''He is always a good doer [and has been worked] since the TJ, and he feels terrific. To look at him you would think he has tightened up a bit from that run.''
Hay List will hunt a second group 1 for the season on Saturday after winning the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley last September. The scales tell the story of a Hay List 10kg heavier heading to Randwick than the one that won that outing.
McNair was confident Hay List had improved after another week of work, and called in race-day partner Glyn Schofield for a second opinion in a gallop on Saturday. ''[Glyn] said there was at least a couple of lengths' improvement there,'' McNair said. ''It's amazing what can happen when he can be worked. I'm the only person that knows the problems he had before and after the Newmarket, and he is a different horse now.''
One of Hay List's main All Aged rivals is Rangirangdoo, which is coming back from injury problems of his own. Chris Waller elected not to defend Rangirangdoo's Doncaster title last Saturday, despite the six-year-old winning the George Ryder Stakes at only his second run after nearly a year off.
''The plan was always the All Aged, and we just have to look after him,'' Waller said.
Corey Brown, who was on Rangirangdoo in the Ryder, has elected to stick with Shoot Out, which he will stay with throughout his preparation in Queensland. That leaves Nash Rawiller to reunite with the horse he won the Doncaster on last year.
Hugh Bowman will ride Melito, which has been placed at group 1 level against the mares in her past two starts, in a field high on quality.
She flashed home for third behind Aloha as topweight in the Coolmore Classic before chasing home More Joyous in the Queen Of The Turf. Her connections had looked at running in the Champion Mile in Hong Kong but decided to stay at home because of quarantine conditions.
Hay List is also attracting attention from overseas, and the Singapore Turf Club is still keen to get him over for next month's Krisflyer Sprint. ''He has been invited but the owners are reluctant to go at the moment,'' McNair said. ''There are other races in Australia for him, and he really needs to have a good spell to be ready for the spring.
''They are still on the phone to us regularly … The Goodwood is still on the agenda but it is unlikely we would go to Singapore this year.''
Hay List would give the rest of the world a measuring stick of where they were at against Black Caviar, because he ran second in the Lightning Stakes and TJ Smith to the super mare. ''He's a very, very good horse when he is right,'' McNair said. ''Black Caviar is the best sprinter we have seen for a long time.''
The Krisflyer Sprint has attracted a star-studded field, including home-town hero Rocket Man, South African JJ The Jet Plane and Sacred Kingdom, which filled the trifecta in the Hong Kong International Sprint last December.
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