‘The Lad’ shines for connections on debut at Maryborough
Horsham owners Helen Friend and Tracey Plush celebrated victory at Maryborough on Good Friday with debutant Uptown Lad in the $20,000 Aldebaran Park Two-year-old Trot.
The youngster displayed perfect racing manners throughout the 2190-metre journey, settling three back the pegs for most of the trip. He eased into the running line at the 500m mark, three wide at the top of the straight, balanced up and trotted solidly to the line to nose out leader Cognati – Greg Sugars – in the shadows of the post.
Co-owner Kristy Van Ryn bred Uptown Lad from the mating of her race mare Downtown Miss with Swedish entire Sebastian K.
Downtown Miss had won five races for Kristy and her husband-trainer David before producing the colt, later to race as Uptown Lad.
She returned to the track about 18 months later and won a race at Swan Hill in November 2020 for new owners Helen Friend and Steve Blacker and the Michael Gadsden-denbeigh Wade stable.
Friend now owns Downtown Miss outright and has fingers crossed for a pre-christmas, safe delivery with the mare in foal to Skyvalley, NZ.
Rainbow owner-trainer Stuart Cocks recorded his first success at Horsham when six-year-old mare Julius Caesars Reign saluted in The Weekly Advertiser Pace over 2200m.
With Connor Clarke in the sulky, Caesars Reign enjoyed a lovely trip from the pole, hard on the back of the leader Hidden Figure – Jack Laugher – before using the sprint lane in the final stages to score by 1.7m in a mile rate of 2:01.
Charlton’s Shane Sanderson, trainer, and son Ryan, 18, driver, combined to take out the $9000 Hyland Race Colours Pace at Horsham over 2200m with the four-year-old gelding Platinum Stride.
The son of boom sire Captain Treacherous, USA, and an unraced Bettors Delight, USA, mare enjoyed a cushy run following leader Ruby Wingate – Jack Laugher – which set only a moderate beat.
The heat went up at the top of the home stretch but Platinum Stride showed his class with a seemingly effortless, final quarter in 27sec neat to score from the pacemaker with Budd Sidewinder – Codi R – a further 2.3m away in third spot.
The victory took Platinum Stride’s record to nine wins, 13 minors and a bank of $99,201.