MORPHETTVILLE AGAIN

It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting here in my motel room in Adelaide whilst campaigning my old mate GUYNO. Along the way we had won the Mornington Cup before winning the Lord Reims and finishing unplaced in the Adelaide Cup. It was a great trip however there has been much water under the bridge since then. GUYNO had a lengthy spell after a severe colic attack and failed to fire at his only two starts during the Autumn. He is now having a good spell before we give him another chance to get back to his best form by training him from my new Capel property during his next campaign.It is hard to believe that over 12 months has past since then.

This trip is a whole lot different to my last visit to S.A. Instead of having a grand old well travelled campaigner like GUYNO, I now have a far less experienced and more lightly raced young stayer in LETHAL JONES to take on the big guns from the east. The horse is here with only one race on his agenda, the SAJC DERBY over 2500m to be run this weekend at Morphettville.It is impossible to line up the form for the race as the horses have come from all parts of Australia for the race and there are some very exciting young staying types in the event.

LETHAL JONES has shown me in both his work and his races that he has the makings of a more than useful stayer in the future so a trip away from home to compete in a race like the Derby on Saturday should help him mature into a more complete package over the next season or two. While the trip and the experience will do him the world of good, that doesn't mean he is here for the practice only! If the horse runs up to his best form on Saturday AND the race is run as a true staying test, I expect him to be more than competetive.

I say a true staying test as from my point of view, the local W.A DERBY was as far removed from being a staying test as the Grand National is a test of speed. I don't want to print the words I uttered post race, nor my thoughts of the rides handed in by most of the riders in the race as I may upset someone or get slapped with another fine by the powers that be so I will let sleeping dogs lie on this occassion. 

The race on Saturday appears to have a mixture of both on pace runners, one paced runners and some sit back and storm home types. Some of the country's best riders will be here to ride in the race so don't be surprised if more than the odd top class stayer emerges from the race over the next season or two.

LETHAL JONES arrived in town this morning after being flown from Perth to Melbourne yesterday and catching a connecting float back across to Morphettville overnight. Still have trouble getting my head around that however that is the only way to get here from Perth unless of course we wanted to float all the way across the Nullabor. The horse had company the whole way as top trainer Neville Parnham also sent across his 3yo REIGN OF TERROR to compete in the same race. Both horses have travelled well and settled in well in their new stables so hopefiully we can both finish in the money to help pay for the trip.

LETHAL JONES DERBY BOUND

Jason Whiting appears to have spotted his mum in the crowd as he reaches the line on LETHAL JONES at Ascot on Saturday. At least the horse is watching where he is going!!

Part owner Greg Dick looks proud as punch as he holds the winners trophy after the post race presentation following the win of LETHAL JONES in the Melvista Hcp on the weekend. It was the first "Black Type" victory for co-trainer Dion Luciani who is hoping to add a Derby win to his resume in the coming weeks. 

All photo's courtesy Hollands Photographics. For more photo's, go to  http://www.hollandsracetrackphotos.com/

Exciting young staying horse LETHAL JONES, has come through his first serious staying test in flying colours and we are looking forward to the him taking his place in the upcoming W.A.Derby in a fortnights time. There are always behind the scene stories when a horse wins any race and there is nothing different about the win of LETHAL JONES.

Jason Whiting who rode the horse on Saturday had the choice a few weeks ago between some exciting two and three year olds moving towards the Karrakatta Plate and the Derby which can be an enviable position to be in however if you make the wrong choice, it can be a bitter pill to swallow. Especially if the "reject" goes on and performs better than the selected ride. That is the risk that any rider takes and at the end of the day they have to live and die by the decisions they make. When Jason had the choice to ride either LETHAL JONES or ROHAN in the J.C.Roberts Quality at their previous starts, I was keen for Jason to ride our horse however I was not confident which way he would go. He chose to stick with the stable and I could see the disappointment in his face when the horse he got off won the race and our horse came in five lengths further back.

Move forward two weeks and the situation was reversed when LETHAL JONES showed why the stable has such a high opinion of his staying ability, when the horse unleashed a mighty finishing effort to get up and win the final lead up to the Derby putting a smile back on the dial of "the fish."  I have to say that at the half way point of the race when Jason had LETHAL JONES back in second last position and off the bridle, I was starting to question whether we may have made a huge mistake in our assessment of the horses ability. To their credit, both horse and rider gained confidence in each other the further they went making it a huge result for the stable and the owners in general.

Whilst only one part owner, Greg Dick, was present at the races on Saturday, both Colin Crossley and Colin Hounsell, will travel down and across from Darwin and Airlie Beach for the "grand final" in a couple of weeks. I' looking forward to catching up with both guys as I have a bit of construction work to do down on my farm the following week so bring your work clobber boys!

SAY NOTHING AT ALL!!!!

We have all been told or have heard the line that "if you haven't got something nice to say, say nothing at all!" It has been very much a case of that with our stables having a fairly lean few months as far as race track performances are concerned. Whilst there is no doubt we had expected quite a lot more from the team, a combination of bad luck, injury and immaturity amongst our young horses, has seen the stable go through a quiet spell. For someone who has been around for as long as I have, it is something I have experienced before and will no doubt experience again. As we all know, as long as you stick at it, the wheel will eventually turn.

With very little to say of late, it surprised me to see my last posting was on March 9th where I predicted a bright staying future for a young horse coming through the ranks with staying potential written all over him. The horse in question is of course, LETHAL JONES and on Saturday he showed the rest of the racing industry, exactly what he has shown us over the past 12 months or more. I made comment back in my last posting that I thought the horse could measure up to W.A.Derby class if he continued to show the expected improvement. Saturday's performance would suggest that he has certainly made some of that improvement.

LETHAL JONES has come through the race well and I fully expect to see even further improvement in him as we head towards the Derby in two weeks time. The horse is now fully qualified and he has certainly come a long way in a short time. As much as there is plenty that can be done to improve a horse such as gear changes and mental conditioning, there is nothing that can bring forward physical development and maturity. Only time and nature can do that so all we can do from here on in is to keep our fingers crossed and hope we have the horse at his best come Derby day.