JACK BE LUCKY EARNS A STAMPEDE FINAL BERTH

By Graham Potter | Saturday, October 28, 2023

The Stampede Qualifier Open Handicap over 1030m at Gympie on October 28 was to provide an important win for both the five-year-old gelding Jack Be Lucky and the Corey and Kylie Geran training partnership.

Jack Be Lucky’s fifth career victory earned him direct entry into the $105 000 Country Stampede Final at Doomben on December 2, the same day on which the stable will contest the $200 000 Country Cups Challenge final with their Wondai Cup winner Vinasta.

And they might not be finished yet!

The stable will target the Yeppoon Country Cups Challenge qualifier on November 4, taking two runners … Sammy and Torbreck … to vie for a coveted place in the Country Cups Final and join Vinasta in that race.

“Jack Be Lucky took a long time to win his Maiden, but he was always paid his way. He just kept running into better ones on the day. He had four seconds in a row in the runs leading into his Maiden win in May 2022,” said Corey Geran.

In his next six starts Jack Be Lucky won another two races, finished second twice and third and fourth once, underlining the consistent level of performance that any owner would like to see in their horse.

Jack Be Lucky was then given a break away from racing for six-and-a-half months before returning on April 6, 2023, where he immediately carried on from where he had left off adding another win to his tally, along with a further second, third and fourth place in a five race preparation which ended with a rare unplaced effort at Rockhampton, which was his first finish out of the first four placings in his last sixteen starts.

“We gave him another break after Rocky, brought him back and I said to the owner why don’t we target this Country Stampede with him, because he is a pretty good provincial horse and I thought he would be right up to it,” said Geran.

“So, I brought him back with the plan to do that. We ran him at Stanthorpe. He got second there, just beaten … and then we took him up to Gympie and he got the win there.

“Jack’s got to have two more runs in the non-tabs to meet the Stampede Final condition, so he’ll race at on Saturday (November 4) at Dalby … and then he will go to Roma on Roma Cup day … and then it will be two weeks into the Final.

“When you are training horses for these type of races you really have to plan things carefully. You are working on it from months out.”

Last into the starting gates, first one home … that was the simple version of Jack Be Lucky’s win at Gympie, but that doesn’t even tell half the story.

With the speed battle well and truly on from the break, Jack Be Lucky ($4.40) could not get in from a wide barrier draw and Kelly Gates decided to push on with Jack Be Lucky in order to keep the Geran runner in touch with the speed.

From the 550m mark, Gates asked Jack Be Lucky for more and the son of Holy Roman Emperor started to make up ground, continuing the run to reach the point of the home turn with only the $11 chance Diggity in front of him with the leader holding a length-and-a-half advantage and not stopping.

Jack Be Luck and Gates rallied throughout the run home though, refusing to settle for second best as they slowly bridged the gap to Diggity. Inside the last 100m these two runners were locked together with a bob of the head finish looking likely but, just when it mattered most, Jack Be Lucky put his head in front, to score a hard-earned win from the game Diggity with the third placed runner finishing a full 4.70 lengths behind the winner.
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On the same day that Jack Be Lucky won at Gympie, two hundred and seventy-five kilometers away Roman Dagger added his name to the Geran Honour Roll when he claimed a second career success in a Class 1 Handicap over 1300m at Toowoomba.

It was a promising effort first-up over a distance arguably short of his best (Roman Dagger had previously won over 1640m – also at Toowoomba) as Roman Dagger had to come from last to get the job done.

That last place represented a seven-length deficit going down the back stretch and into the start of the sweep to the home turn, but, when Karl Zechner held an inside line just two wide while a number of other runners fanned wider out on the track on straightening, Roman Dagger was now just three lengths off the lead … and ready to chase.

When the $2,20 favourite Russian Sub hit the front with 200m left to run, Roman Dagger was still two lengths adrift but starting to build momentum to the point that, when Roman Dagger did get up alongside the main fancy, Russian Sub had no answer to Raman Dagger’s strong, sustained finishing effort and the Geran trained runner went on to score by a one length margin.

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