DEBUT PERFORMANCES DON'T COME MUCH BETTER THAN BOHEMIAN LAD'S STROLL TO VICTORY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, May 14, 2023

If you are an owner or a trainer you would wish everything would come as easily as Bohemian Lad’s win at the Sunshine Coast on May 14 in a QTIS Two-Year-Old Maiden Plate over 1000m.

Of course, results seldom come that easy though, so when it does, it is to be enjoyed as the connections of the son of Better Than Ready would have done watching Bohemian Lad … on debut … demolish his opposition, seemingly without any undue effort.

In truth, it was a cakewalk … and punters were onto it early.

Prior to this debut outing, Bohemian Lad had three trials (on December 20, 2022, April 4 and May 2). He won that last trial in very comfortable fashion and was marked up here at the already ‘good thing’ price of $1.90 before shortening in even further to a starting price of $1,45.

Only one other runner was under the $10 mark, another was at $10 itself and one was at $16 … and it was $26 and upwards for the remaining eight runners.

As emphatic as Bohemian Lad’s dominance was on the betting boards, so too was it in the race itself with those who had taken the short odds at no stage having any cause for concern.

Bohemian Lad landed midfield at the jump and, with Ryan Maloney happy to let Bohemian Lad find his way into the race, the Vandyke trained runner eventually settled in fifth spot, racing in-between runners, a little over two lengths off the leader.

Bohemian Lad was still the same distance back, but now up to fourth, four wide, on straightening … and still Maloney had hardly moved on his mount.

From there, with the minimum of fuss and no noticeable effort, Bohemian Lad simply cruised past the three runners who had been in front of him and coasted to the front with Maloney only riding hands and heels.

It was already ‘race over’ at the 250m mark with commentator Josh Fleming summing up the closing stages of Bohemian Lad’s first taste of race action by saying … ‘Look at this. Arrogance. Arrogance.’

Bohemian Lad’s winning margin … which he could have been substantially increased had he been asked to do … was a full three lengths.

Yes, it was just a Maiden race, against largely similarly inexperienced opposition (six out of his eleven opponents were also first-timers) … and it is still early days … but the fact remains that Bohemian Lad could not have passed his first test with more panache.

This was an impressive start to a racing career.

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