MINTAKA LAD EMBARRASSES HIS OPPOSITION

By Graham Potter | Sunday, April 2, 2023

It had been a while coming, but when it arrived on April 2 in a Maiden Plate over 1200m at the Sunshine Coast the first career win of the David Vandyke trained Mintaka Lad was delivered in rousing fashion as the three-year-old son of Deep Field comprehensively trounced his field putting five lengths of daylight between himself and the runner-up.

Up until this stage, which was only his second start, Mintaka Lad had more trials than races behind his name dated back to October 2022.

A trail win in October was followed by another trail win in November as Vandyke brought Mintaka Lad along slowly before giving him his first taste of race action on December 9 in a three-year-old Maiden Handicap over 1200m, going straight to town at Doomben ... a race in which he finished third, 4.50 lengths behind the Chris Waller trained Olentia.

While that result was arguably a touch disappointing at first glance (Mintaka Lad did start as a $3.10 second favourite), Olentia, the winner there, franked that form by winning again next time out by 4.80 lengths in a Class 1 at Eagle Farm.

Following his debut run, Mintaka Lad was allowed a four-month layoff from race action ... and another two trials ... and when he came out for this run on April 2, he was all the rage in the betting, starting at the prohibitive odds of $1.55.

Prohibitive odds they might have been ... but punters who put their money down on Mintaka Lad never had a moment’s worry throughout the 71 seconds it took for Mintaka Lad to cover the 1200m race distance.

Jumped into an immediate lead by Jim Byrne, Mintaka Lad held a clear ascendancy throughout the running with Byrne not afraid to increase the tempo in the sweep to the home turn with Mintaka Lad playing his part to perfection by maintaining a resolute gallop all the way to the line to embarrass the best of his opposition by that five length margin.

So complete was Mintaka Lad’s dominance in the run home that the action was essentially broken up into two races ... the winner home and dry leaving the balance of the field in the race for the minor placings.

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