THAT'S TWO OUT OF THREE NOW FOR LUTON HOO

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 20, 2024

Luton Hoo, a Time Test mare, scored her first win for the David Vandyke stable ... and her second in only three career starts ... at the Gold Coast on the Poly Track in a BM58 Handicap over 1540m on July 20.

The very lightly raced four-year-old mare won on debut at Orange, back in October 2023, when in the care of trainer Matthew Smith, but that was her only race start for Smith. She did trial twice in February 2024, but she showed little there before being transferred to the Vandyke yard where she trailed again on May 28, 2024 ... again showing little.

Vandyke gave her almost another month off before sending Luton Hoo out to contest a Class 1 Handicap over 1050m on the Gold Coast Poly Track, where she was relatively unwanted in the betting drifting from $4 to $11 ... but she performed well enough to land third place less than two lengths off the winner Enflamed, who was making it back-to-back wins.

Luton Hoo cased solidly down the straight on that occasion with being able to reel in the end-to-end winner, and Vandyke then took the step of raising the distance test from 1050m to 1540m for her next start.

Micheal Hellyer put Luton Hoo ($4.40) into the race right from the start here and he had the Vandyke trained runner racing in a comfortable second place, just a length off the leader Gregarious, as the field went down the back stretch.

The positions remained unchanged all the way to the home turn ... and in the first half of the straight as it became a long, hard chase for Luton Hoo down the home stretch.

With 150m left to run Hellyer had got Luton Hoo to within half-a-length of Gregarious ($9), racing in close quarters.
By the 100m Luton Hoo put her head narrowly in front for the first time but, for several more strides, it was still a dogfight between these two runners before Luton Hoo finally eased away over the last 50m to score by, in the end, a decisive one length margin.

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