Race team likely to struggle but Ray’s looking forward to seeing Lincoln Lou on Friday night

Trainer Ray Green is most looking forward to seeing what Lincoln Lou can do at Auckland on Friday night - but you can’t get a bet on him.

The Sweet Lou two-year-old is down to trial before the meeting begins, Green keen to give him a look around Alexandra Park before taking him to the races.

Lincoln Lou is the most precocious of the team of two-year-olds Lincoln Farms has in work and showed his ability at last Wednesday’s Pukekohe workouts, leading all the way for driver Zachary Butcher.

In his first look at the mobile gate, Lincoln Lou did everything like a professional, running the mile in 2:07.9, closing in 60.2 and 29 to stave off Tony Herlihy’s Sadhaka and his stablemate Lilly Lincoln.

Lincoln Lou, a $40,000 yearling buy at last year’s New Zealand Bloodstock sale at Karaka, is from a big winning family, his dam Sea Of Gold a sister to multiple Group I winner Gold Ace, Strike The Gold who won 15 wins for Lincoln Farms and Dark Energy who won 21 in Australia and another 13 in the United States.

How the colt shapes up will be closely watched by Woodlands Stud which will offer a Downbytheseaside half brother at this year’s Karaka sale on Sunday week.

No champagne on ice

Green won’t be putting any champagne on ice for his race team, Frankie Major completely outclassed in the main pace and Lincoln River and My Copy needing luck to beat some tidy up-and-comers in the Remembering Neil Brady Pace.

Neither Zachary Butcher nor Nathan Delany will be adopting the handlebars-down style of the late Brady when they team with My Copy and Lincoln River.

My Copy is well held in sixth by driver David Butcher with no clear path ahead.My Copy ($15), drawn four, has not run a bad race for some time, and comes into Friday’s 2200 metre event with an unlucky last-start sixth alongside his name.

Driver David Butcher told Green that My Copy would have run in the money last start had he been able to find a gap down the home stretch, instead of being bottled up the whole way.

As it was he finished only 2.6 lengths from winner Better Knuckle Up who clocked the mile in 1:55.7 in beating a good field.

“He’s racing as well as he can and you can’t condemn him on anything he’s done in the last few months.”

Lincoln River ($15), drawn wider in six, is a bit like My Copy, says Green, in that he tries hard and does his best, but needs the right trip to feature.

“He went OK last time at Hawera, after breaking from the standing start, and swished up to them on the home turn. But he wasn’t handling the (grass) track as well as I’d hoped and Nathan had to nurse him the last bit.”

Green is very frank in dismissing Frankie Major’s ($61) chances in the ninth race when, as a rating 61 horse, he takes on Self Assured (R120), Merlin (R98) and Mach Shard (R96).

“He can’t beat those horses but he’s better going round for fourth money ($1200) than going to the trials and getting nothing.”

Frankie Major, a last-start winner of a rating 51 to 59 race at the Park on New Year’s Eve, showed he was up to the mark when running fourth in a strong workout heat at Pukekohe last Wednesday behind Cold Chisel, Coastal Babe and Le Major.