Lanett powers home for win

TALENTED mare Gee Gee Lanett may have booked a berth in the upcoming Newmarket Handicap.

That’s the realisation after the mare scoring an impressive win in a benchmark 76 handicap over 1220m in Launceston last night.

The Stuart Gandy-trained mare settled behind the leaders off a hot tempo and when rider Siggy Carr eased her off heels to challenge in the home straight she powered home.

She left no doubt and scored convincingly from stablemate Happy Halloween and Speed Force.

Gee Gee Lanett was coming off a first-up second behind Scrutineer in Hobart.

“We opted to come to this race instead of the Goodwood in Hobart and it’s proven to be the right move,” Gandy said.

“We will have a talk about where we go from here but I think the Newmarket might be the way to go because she will still get in with the minimum weight [54kg] and she loves this Launceston track.”

Carr was thrilled with the mare’s latest effort.

“She travelled really well tonight,” Carr said.

“But before the race she was so relaxed it sort of unnerved me because she usually gets a bit hot in the mounting yard but it was the reverse tonight.

“But she is maturing as a racehorse and on tonight’s run, Stuart would most likely head her to the Newmarket.”

Gee Gee Lanett has quite a record, having won seven of her 22 starts along with a dozen minor placings for about $165,000 in stakes.

THE John Blacker-trained Appraise is on a path to the 3YO Cup and other feature races after scoring an impressive win in a 3YO maiden over 1220m.

Appraised ($1.50 fav) raced outside of the leader A Tad More but he made light of the task to race clear in the home straight to win comfortably.

“Now that he’s got a win under his belt we can aim him at the feature races but he is still quite green and will need to improve his race manners if he is to be competitive in races like the Tasmanian Guineas which is his main goal this prep,” Blacker said.

“I can hardly wait until he can get into a race where he can be ridden quietly and then we will see that he can really do. He will have a couple of days off maybe and then look at where we’ll go with him next start.”