Some Scone Sweeteners

Gai Waterhouse's split with John Singleton might be taking the publicity, but spare a thought for two local trainers who will watch with interest when horses they used to train compete at the rich Scone Cup carnival on Friday and Saturday.  Nick Olive and Neville Layt don't have the calibre of horses pulled from Waterhouse's stable by Singleton, but both have lost stable stars in Zaratone and Red Excietment.  Now trained at Warwick Farm by Bjorn Baker, Zaratone won almost $400,000 in prizemoney and was Olive's best horse in the stable before being shipped off to Sydney by his owners.  Despite being disappointed to lose Zaratone, Olive said it wasn't worth dwelling on.  "Horses come and go, and people switch and change, and if you lose too much sleep over it you'd never sleep," he said.  "It's not as if we couldn't get the horse going - we've won a few hundred thousand with him, won stakes races and won on Golden Slipper day.  I guess that's what makes it the most disappointing, knowing we've had a great deal of success with the horse."  Olive admits it will be hard to watch Zaratone when he contests the listed Ortensia Stakes on Saturday at Scone, but will be forcused on his runner Nat King Cu who races in the Benchmark 65 Country Cup at Scone on Friday.  A winner of four of eight starts, Nat King Cu will carry 60.5kg and start from barrier 16 but Olive remains positive.  "He's a promising horse and should have a great race there," Olive said.  While Layt's former charge Red Excitement was only in the early stages of his career, he too is frustrated to see the youngster go to Gerald Ryan's Sydney stable.  The winner of $175,000 will contest the $500,000 Inglis Guineas on Saturday, a race Layt thinks will prove far too difficult.