Fergie tells how Manawatu campaigns helped Leo Lincoln win brutal $35,000 Metro Final

Peter Ferguson wasn’t joking when he said ‘Manawatu form is good form’ on returning to scale after winning the $35,000 Metro Pacers’ Final on Leo Lincoln at Alexandra Park.

It was at the Central Districts track in eight consecutive starts from March through May that Fergie sealed his seat behind the little four-year-old for Lincoln Farms trainers Ray Green and Nathan Delany.

And the canny Cambrdge horseman is adamant the repeated trips down south helped mould Leo into a hardened racehorse.

“It’s hard racing at Manawatu, it’s not as easy to win as people think, and it toughens them up. How many of Michael House’s team do you see go back from Manawatu to Addington and win.”

Leo Lincoln certainly needed all his toughness to score on Friday night as the pace never let up, the field spread out like Brown’s cows at the end of a blistering 2:39.9 mobile 2200 metres.

“Everybody has a go when the money’s up. They went like cut cats and I was flat the whole way. It was a real race.”

Ferguson made a winning decision quite early in the final, electing to stay on the markers when he had the opportunity to move out into the running line.

“Because he struggles on the bends that way round, he’s way better on the fence and I thought three fence wasn’t the worst place to be.”

And at the end of a brutal race, when horses were dropping away, it was Leo who powered up the passing lane to down You Little Beauty by half a length in a slick mile rate of 1:56.9.

Third, in an enormous performance, was stablemate Kevin Kline, who mounted a four-wide run from last down the back straight, was five wide turning in, and only three and a quarter lengths away at the finish.

What Ray Green said about Leo Lincoln’s chances on Friday night.$37.80 win dividend

Tenth favourite in a field of 11, Leo Lincoln’s $37.80 win dividend came as a surprise to both Ferguson and Green, who’d been quite bullish about his prospects pre-race.

“He hasn’t been going the worst,” Ferguson said. “He was unlucky last week and he’s been running against the likes of Mantra Blue and American Me and he just hasn’t got the high speed of those top class ones.

“But he’s a good follower, and he tries real hard, and the difference was last night they ran home in 30.5 where they normally pull out a 27 last quarter.

“He’s a cool little horse and he just needed a race to go his way. I was most pleased for Ray and Nathan and John Street and the team. They line up every week, holding half the fields together, so they deserve to win a good race like this.”

It was actually the third good stake Leo has banked in recent months, after winning a $20,000 race and $25,000 race at Manawatu, his earnings now topping $110,000 for John and Lynne Street, Green, Ian Middleton, Glenn and Ann Cotterill and Phil Kelly.

Ferguson said he liked being part of a team that was always receptive to his ideas and prepared to run with them.

“At Manawatu we put a galloping hood on him because he wasn’t sparking up. Back at Auckland he started sparking up too much so we went to pull down blinds and he travelled much better in the run.

“Then we changed the type of pole we use on him so he’d take the bends better, then Ray changed his bit.”

Ferguson, now the regular driver of stablemate The Rascal, also suggested they bandage his hind legs on Friday night, like a trotter, to help improve his gait.

The horse also wore a hind spreader and Ferguson reported, while he finished only second, he was 70% better.