Lincoln Hills is still a softy but no-one’s complaining and it all looks ahead of him

He might still be a “softy” but owners John and Lynne Street and Ian Middleton aren’t complaining that they have to be patient with Lincoln Hills.

The five-year-old was having only his 26th start at Awapuni today when he capitalised on a perfect Johnathan Parkes ride to win his fourth race.

While the horse showed plenty of promise from his very first start, when he scored on debut, trainer Lisa Latta says the owners have had to be patient.

And despite continuing to get stronger, Lincoln Hills still needs his races spaced, still needs good trips, and still need good footing to produce his best.

Johnathan Parkes salutes on Lincoln Hills. PHOTO: Peter Rubery.Middleton, Lincoln Farms’ business manager, didn’t make it to Palmerston North to see the win but watched it on TV from Ellerslie and thought he might be celebrating when he saw the horse enjoying a cushy trail from his inside draw.

“If he gets in traffic he doesn’t like it but with a decent run like that he’s a professional little horse,” Middleton said.

“He doesn’t like the sting out of the ground too much either - a dead 4 or 5 is about as bad as he likes - but when he gets a good dry track like today, he can really spring off the ground.”

Latta reported Lincoln Hills was still a little unsure of himself on raceday but did everything right today, thanks to a perfect ride, and would keep improving.

“We’ve had to wait for him but he’s never been bad to us,” said Middleton of the All Too Hard gelding who has now weighed in at 16 of his 26 starts, his record tarnished a little by 10 runs on slow and heavy footing.

Lincoln Hills outmuscles One Prize One Goal. PHOTO: Peter Rubery.Latta says there are plenty of nice races coming up for Lincoln Hills who always looked to have the race in safe keeping once Parkes mounted his challenge in the home stretch, outmuscling One Prize One Goal, who held second from the disappointing favourite Our Hail Mary.

Lincoln Hills, a A$55,000 Magic Millions yearling in 2016, is out of an unraced More Than Ready mare in Hickory Hills but his grand dam Skating topped the Australasian Three-year-old classification in 1992-93.

“John and Neville McAlister picked him out - they liked him because he was very athletic,” Middleton said.

Lincoln Hills, Latta’s second best bet of the day, clocked a swift 1:22.59 for the 1400 metres and returned a healthy $6.30 dividend on the tote.