THE LES ROSS STABLE IS READY TO LOAD UP WITH A WELL-STOCKED ARMOURY OF TWO-YEAR-OLDS

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Trainer Les Ross has a history of being successful with two-year-olds horses and so it came as no real surprise when he saddled the quinella in the Pat O’Shea Plate at Toowoomba in late September ... the first two-year-old race for the season in Queensland.

Mishani Scandal ($3.80) and Mishani Operator (9.00) got the job done that day and, although Ross couldn’t replicate that result last Saturday, his two-year-old armoury appears pretty well stocked.

“I didn’t go to Toowoomba thinking my horses were a little bit underdone, only because they were the first into action,” said Ross. This Saturday past at Eagle Farm my runners had another week of work in them and we managed a fourth placing. Whatever they did there they will improve on, as will the horses from Toowoomba.

“This coming Saturday, with the QTIS Fillies Two-Year-Old Plate and the QTIS Colts and Geldings Two Year Old Plate on the card, I believe my best two-year-olds will race.”

Ross nominated no less than five runners for the Colts and Geldings event on Saturday … and he has accepted with four runner (a third of the field). He also had four runners nominated for the Fillies event and has accepted with two … so he will have a major interest on the day.

“I’ve got so many two-year-olds, but I haven’t got one that I can hang my hat on and say it will win by ten lengths.

"What I do have is probably ten or eleven nice horses out of the thirty two-year-olds that I have. It is always a bit of a scary time working with the two-year-olds. You are never certain what you’ve got and have to let things unfold.

“Having said that, (leading owner) Mike Crooks said to me. ‘if you can have the older horses or the young horses … which would you take?’

“The older horses have made plenty of money and they are nice horses, but the young ones are unknown. They could be anything. You don’t know how much you might win with them. They are a challenge … but I opted to go with the babies.

“Mike gave me all of them to educate … and the idea then was to pass some of them on to other trainers. In the meantime, I opted to send a couple of more horses out to the farm and then it came about that I could have twenty boxes out at Mishani Lodge and twenty at my stables.

That gave me forty boxes … and, as far as the two-year-olds are concerned, that meant there could be ten of the babies out there getting educated, ten in my stable and ten in the paddock … and they just keep rotating.

‘So, the plan of farming some of them out to other trainers fell away. It would have been very difficult for me otherwise. I would have been asked which ones I would like to keep … and then you think, after doing all of that work … well, I like that one, and that one, and that one … so many of them.

Of the thirty I liked twenty-five of them and thought I would be happy to leave the other five for six months time. Happily, in the end, the way it was resolved, I didn’t have to choose at all.

“That’s why I got a little bit emotional at Toowoomba because a lot of work and a lot of effort went in to getting those horses to be able to go there.

“I have to say that without Mike Crooks … I’m not here.

We teamed up together about ten years ago. We did have a little break for a year or so. We are very much back together again now and I couldn’t be happier.

“He knows how I work. I know how he works and hopefully we can find a bit of success moving forward.

“Mike loves winning but, I can tell you, he really loves horses.

“If I died and came back as a horse, Mishani Lodge is where I would like to be.”

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