Lara’s Saintly………Blessed!!!!
Last weeks feature race was Queen Victoria Cup at Grade I level and it was taken out in great style by Lara’s Saitly, trained by Larastable and ridden by B Johnson.
The win was good as he jumped quickly from his wide gate and went straight to the lead of the 12 horse field and settled nicely. He traveled sweetly on the bit until he was asked for his effort and he surged at halfway mark and went 8 lengths in front at the tope of the stretch and he was getting tired in the stretch when Shock and Awe Too and Galloping Ghost came with their runs but he was too strong and held on and on the post he won by 4 lengths. They tried hard to pick him up but Lara’s Saintly had too much speed through the entire stretch run and they just could not keep up, he held the lead throughout and was hard ridden in the stretch but held on and went on to win by a 4 lengths.
Johnson returned to scale and was thrilled by the win saying once he got to the front he was always going to win, that was an impressive win and there are bigger things in store for this horse as that win was done in pretty easy fashion and there is plenty more improvement and he made the step up to the highest level and in easy fashion.
Larastable was also quoted after that race as saying “This guy has been a great performer for me, this is his 1st Grade I win, and it is a great thrill to be training him He has always competed against good horses and it is now nice to know he can compete with the best, we might now have to look at a race like the Breeders Cup!”.
In winning Lara’s Saintly recorded his 10th win from 39 starts and importantly his 1st win at Grade I level. In doing so recorded an 101 speed figure and raised his stake earnings to a staggering $611,126.
Well done to the winner and congratulations to the connections.
Simon