Lincoln Wave super and Sammy Lincoln super unlucky - two three-year-olds worth following

You could have forgiven co-trainer Ray Green for any what-might-have-beens after Lincoln Wave’s decisive debut win at Auckland on Friday night.

But Green and his partner Nathan Delany are only looking ahead with the powerful colt, derby aspirations now replacing what could so easily have been two-year-old riches.

“We’ve waited a while for that,” said Green after the Downbytheseaside colt spanked his rivals, leading all the way and cruising home by two and three-quarter lengths.

“He could have done that six months ago and I was pretty confident either he or Sammy Lincoln would win, they’re both classy horses.”

Lincoln Wave looked set to make his mark in the early two-year-old Young Guns series 12 months ago when Green’s wife Debbie detected some filling in one of his legs.

Scans and X-rays detected a roughened appearance of the two sesamoid bones that sit at the back of the fetlock joint, the warning signs of sesamoiditis.

“If we’d pressed on, we could have risked it all so we did the right thing by him and turned him out for a long spell.”

Great horseman and educator Maurice McKendry behind Lincoln Wave.Lincoln Wave came back stronger and coltier, pushing the patience of Lincoln Farms’ stable workers.

“He knows he’s a colt - he thinks he rules the roost - but we let him get away with a bit of bullshit as it keeps him brave.”

But, as driver Maurice McKendry found out on Friday night, Lincoln Wave might be stroppy but he has a lot to learn.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing yet,” McKendry said.

“He’s green as, but he had plenty left.”

And McKendry is just the man to extract the best from the three-year-old, Green declaring he’s the right person to turn Lincoln Wave into a racehorse.

“Maurice is a great horseman - he educates them - and once he’s driven them a few times, they really come to it.

“We’ll just keep poking him out there - he should win again next week - and I’m pretty sure we’ll see him and Sammy Lincoln in the Sires’ Stakes and derbies later in the season.”

John Street gives Friday night’s trophy to one of his partners in Lincoln Wave, ATC steward Phil Kelly.That statement was warmly received by the Lincoln Wave partnership of Lincoln Farms owners John and Lynne Street, their business manager Ian Middleton, ATC stewards David Turner and Phil Kelly, and Paul Wyatt.

The crew behind Sammy Lincoln were also buzzing after he finished a very unlucky third behind his stablemate.

The big Always B Miki gelding was wiped out on the first turn when Everndon’s driver Tony Cameron shifted in on him, checking him into a break and locking wheels.

Back in the running and held up in traffic turning for home, Sammy Lincoln made up excellent ground for driver Harrison Orange when clear.