Lloyd speeding to another city ton
PREMIER jockey Jeff Lloyd has moved within a win of recording 100 Queensland metropolitan winners for the second season in a row with a Gold Coast treble.
Lloyd won on Captivator ($2.50), Mystic Moon ($3.90), and the Amateur ($17) at Aquis Park yesterday to take him to 99 Queensland metropolitan wins and 135 on all tracks this season.
He set a Queensland metropolitan record when he recorded 137 wins last season, smashing Chris Munce’s then record of 102.
Lloyd has a third straight Queensland metropolitan premiership in his keeping and has ridden 336 city winners since returning from a health-enforced break in 2014.
Gold Coast trainer Les Kelly is hoping Captivator can make the field for the Group 1 Queensland Derby (2200m) at Doomben on June 9 after his win yesterday.
Captivator, who did his early racing in Victoria, overcame a forced change of tactics to lead and held on to score a narrow but brave win in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap (1800m).
“We weren’t planning on leading but Jeff (jockey Lloyd) had no choice when the horse we thought would lead didn’t do it and it was a tough effort,” Kelly said.
“They might be a bit good in the Derby but if he gets a start I would like to run him.”
Murwillumbah trainer Matt Dunn got his first winner for leading owners Graham and Linda Huddy when Lacey Lynx Pack ($8) won at her second start in the Maiden Plate (1400m).
Dunn thinks Lacey Lynx Pack, a Bullet Train threeyear-old who cost $110,000 as a yearling, will be more than handy as the distances get longer. “The Huddys sent me her about six months ago and it is obviously good to get a horse for such prominent owners,” he said.
Gold Coast trainer Toby Edmonds, who trained Mystic Moon, predicted a bright future for first starter Viral ($2) who overcame a buffeting on the home turn to win a two-year-old race over 1400m.
“I’ve only had him for eight or so weeks and he has got some improvement in him,” Edmonds said.