LULU’S TARGET
IT IS 26 years since Alex Greaves became the first female rider to win the Lincoln, but Lulu Stanford could join her in the history books with victory aboard MASTER CARPENTER (Doncaster, nb, 3.35) today.
Allow me to outline the disclaimer first as Rod Millman’s six-year-old is no ‘good thing’ given he has traditionally needed his first run of the season and his talented young rider has precious little experience of ferocious handicaps like this.
However, those negatives are factored into the morning price and the selection is becoming a dangerously well-handicapped individual these days. He looks well drawn too, with the likes of pace-setters Emell, Heaven’s Guest and Zhui Feng in his vicinity.
It was less than 12 months ago that Master Carpenter was hunting up the likes of My Dream Boat and Cannock Chase in Group Three contests, while he was only beaten 11 lengths by Postponed in the Group One Coronation Cup last summer over a trip in excess of his best.
Traditionally, the six-year-old has been at his best early season and his record in the months of April and May reads three wins and five places from 13 outings.
Compare that to his stats from June onwards of just one success from 18 runs then he appears a horse to have on the radar for a race of this nature, especially off a mark of 99, the lowest he has been rated since his juvenile days.
It is easy to understand the case for the more-fancied duo Yuften and Donncha. The former arrives at Town Moor on the back of a promising Wolverhampton return, while connections of Donncha primed their gelding so he was ready to roll first time out 12 months ago when beaten a neck in the Spring Mile.