YOU TAKE THEM WHERE THEY CAN WIN. IF YOU GET A HALF-DECENT PRICE, SO MUCH THE BETTER

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 13, 2024

You go where your horse can win ... wherever that might be ... and if you get a decent price about its chances, so much the better.

And so it was that KO Racing’s Lady Wairua, a New Zealand bred daughter of Charm Spirit, arrived at a non-Tab meeting at Esk to tackle a BM55 Handicap over 1200m on July 13.

The five-year-old had ten runs for trainer Phillip Stokes for one win and two runner-up finishes prior to relocating to the Corey and Kylie Geran stable ... and then had a further ten runs for the Geran yard without posting another win.

That meant that relatively good odds of $4.20 were available for this Esk assignment where she effectively came into the race as second bottom weight, courtesy of the 2kg claim of Landan Sykes, which was going to be a helpful advantage in a busy contest for the first half of the home straight.

Lady Wairua raced well back, some six to seven lengths off the keenly contested chase up from in the early part, but Sykes then started to bring the Geran trained runner steadily into the race in the long sweep to the home turn. He saved ground until the point of the home turn and then switched four wide to gain some much needed, clear galloping room.

Then the race was on in earnest, with a host of runners trying to stake their claim.

Inside the 150m mark there were six horses, spread across the track, all in real contention, but Sykes now had Lady Wairua in full cry and the Geran trained runner thrived on the challenge, reaching the lead in the last 75m and staying on strongly to hold all challengers at bay.

The pressure involved in the finish is emphasised by the fact that only 1.50 lengths covered the first seven runners across the line.

The winning margin was 0.40 lengths.

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