Penny drops for Major Achievement as loyal Lincoln Farms’ bunch cheers him home

Trainer Ray Green was delighted to see Major Achievement get home at Cambridge for some of Lincoln Farms’ most loyal supporters.

But while the Art Major four-year-old scored comfortably enough over the favourite Harold Hanover, Green admitted there was a time when he feared the horse would never make it.

Lincoln Farms’ owners John and Lynne Street, the nine women Excell Syndicate, Lance Myocevich, the Red and Blue Syndicate, Margaret Rabbitt, the Four Legs Syndicate and Trevor Casey didn’t have much to be excited about early on.

“He was very slow on the uptake,” Green said. “Taller than most he was a slow maturer but more than that it took him a long time to get gaited up.

“But we gave him time to find his feet and he’s come to it now.

“He needs to sharpen his act up further but he will keep improving.”

Green said Major Achievement hadn’t been racing badly before Thursday’s win which was at his seventh start.

“He’s been going some good races with no luck and being a bit green has also cost him. But he got a super trip on Thursday and was good enough to take advantage of it.”

What had looked to be a bad draw, wide out on the gate, morphed into a good one as lead changes saw him promoted from four back in the running line to the one-one sit.

And when driver Andre Poutama unleashed him turning for home he finished best to score by three-quarters of a length.

Major Achievement, who is out of the Soky’s Atom mare Atom Queen, cost just $30,000 at the 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock yearling sale in Christchurch.

An embryo transplant half brother to Upanatom (27 wins) and Zacharia (12 wins), he is from the Tuapeka Lodge family of Maureen’s Dream, whose daughter Reality Check left big winners Ultimate Sniper (14 wins) and Ultimate Machete (13 wins).