Plenty of Pride in Lekvarte as Belle of the Turf looms

TRAINER Joseph Pride rates Lekvarte as his top seed in Wednesday’s Group 3 Belle Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) and believes the talented mare is ready to go back in the deep end at Gosford.

Pride will chase a late Christmas gift in the $240,000 main event when Lekvarte chases an important stakes win alongside stablemate Kouklara in the feature race. Lekvarte finished sixth in a Group 3 Kembla Grange Classic at Goulburn during her threeyear-old season in the autumn but has raced in easier company since then.

A strong second up win at Randwick last start has given Pride the confidence to test Lekvarte in stakes company again.

“She is a lovely mare,” Pride said.

“I‘ve always had a good opinion of her and I thought she was going to make it as a three-year-old and a couple of things went against her, wet tracks and a bit of a knee issue.

“Now she is back on track to sort of fulfil her potential.

“She is a lovely, big strong mare and I don‘t mind deep ending her because I think she has the ability there.

“It‘s a nice race this race, it comes up softly every year and is so of awkwardly placed on the calendar.”

Chad Schofield, who rode Ramones to victory for Pride on Boxing Day at Randwick, will partner Lekvarte.

The Cox Plate winning rider will have to be at his best after Lekvarte was handed the tricky draw in barrier 14.

“She will be in the second half of the field but it looks a fast race,” Pride said. “It looks a very fast race actually so I hope they don‘t look at each other and wait for each other at the front because if they do what they normally do, these horses will be scooting along.

“Tricky draw and assuming there will be minimal scratchings as I couldn't imagine too many would come out in a Group 3 race for mares. With a big field, let‘s hope there is a good amount of pressure.”

Lekvarte is rated an $8 chance with TAB.