LANDAN SYKES SHINES AT KILCOY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, June 2, 2024

You have got to hand it to apprentice Landan Sykes who powered home two winners (Island Tide and Shotgun Sixtyfour) on Sunday June 2 at Kilcoy, both wins coming for the Corey and Kylie Geran stable, who are giving the young rider plenty of opportunities.

Sykes kicked off the trainer/jockey double with Island Tide in the second race on the card (see separate story here ISLAND TIDE MAKES IT SIX-IN-A-ROW FOR GG RACING). In that race Sykes made all the running aboard Island Tide, rating the horse well in the first half of the race to ensure she had plenty left in reserve when he asked her to race away from all opposition down the home straight and go on to score an emphatic victory.

But, for all that, Kilcoy is really a front-runner ... on speed track ... so Sykes had that in his favour on Island Tide ... but not with his win on Shotgun Sixtyfour, who went back to second last five to lengths off the leader early on.

That was another matter altogether.

Shotgun Sixtyfour ($9) went into this race winless after sixteen starts, but three runner-up finishes in his last four starts suggested that the long-awaited win would not be far away.

Jumping from the extreme outside draw (nine out of nine) did the mare no favours though, and Sykes duly took his mount back from the wide barrier, settling her in second last place in the early part, giving the leaders that six lengths start.

Approaching the 450m, the field was slightly more compact, but Shotgun Sixtyfour, having slipped back to last place, now had the entire field in front of her.

On the sweep to the home turn Sykes started angling the Geran trained runner outwards as he asked Shotgun Sixtyfour to quicken her tempo. Already out to five wide on the turn ... switching around heels any wider would have cost her the race ... Sykes boldly targeted a narrow gap inbetween runners and Shotgun Sixtyfour was a willing partner as the duo forced their way into clear running on straightening.

Having done work to get there, Shotgun Sixtyfour had to remain strong in the run home to successfully complete her mission ... and she did that in no uncertain terms to win with 1.50 lengths to spare over the second placed Chockablock, the $2.80 race favourite.

Credit to Sykes for the ride and to Corey and Kylie Geran for setting up the horse ready to do battle.

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