Tyson outgrits Words to score his fourth win on Friday night. PHOTO: Megan Liefting/Race Images.
Resilient Lincoln Farms’ three-year-olds Tyson and Kevin Kline doing breeder proud
By Barry Lichter • 29 November 2025
Lincoln Farms’ trainer Ray Green has never regretted the day he agreed to try out four horses for retiring Waikato breeder Pat Laboyrie.
When he sold his Lake Karapiro property and moved north, Laboyrie gifted Green 50% of Tyson and leased the rest to Lincoln Farms.
And last night, at Alexandra Park, Tyson notched his fourth win, while six-race winner Kevin Kline was best of the rest behind Arna Donnelly’s Thames Summer Cup trifecta Jolimont, Little Spike and The Surfer.
Green admits he took little notice at the time of Tyson’s breeding - “I never worry much about pedigrees. Good conformation is more important and he was a beautiful looking colt.”
But the Art Major gelding has wasted no time in living up to his breeding, his consistency all but bettering that of his dam Helena Jet.
Tyson and Kevin Kline hail from successful families of now retired breeder Pat Laboyrie.With a record of 13 wins from just 32 starts, Helena Jet was Laboyrie’s second best performer, running seconds to champion mare Adore Me in the 2014 Queen Of Hearts and Four-Year-Old Diamond.
Tyson has yet to show the class of Laboyrie’s all-time best, A G’s White Socks, who won 17 races, Group I races on both sides of the Tasman, and $732,000.
But Tyson’s never-say-die racing style has been on show just about every week for the last six months as he has racked up four wins, five seconds, four thirds and nine fifths.
Friday night’s performance was a perfect example of Tyson’s resilience as driver Maurice McKendry came out of his one-one trail 1200 metres from home to race parked outside the leader.
Not for Tyson a cushy sit, McKendry has learned he goes much better doing it tough.
And, in typical fashion, while seemingly under pressure turning for home, Tyson just kept giving, eventually overhauling leader Words to score by a neck, closing in 56.9 and 27.9.
The win boosted Tyson’s stakes tally to $59,460 and earned him a place in next week’s $35,000 Northern Metro Final.
Kevin Kline, who is now raced by Lincoln Farms’ owners John and Lynne Street, and a host of their partners, is also from a successful Laboyrie family, his dam Matai Mies having earlier left eight-race winners Emily Blunt and Happy Place.
And the way the three-year-old continues to improve, it’s a safe bet that he will eventually better their tallies.
Despite sitting parked for the last lap in the Summer Cup, he held his place well in the run to the judge, finishing just 3.2 lengths behind Jolimont.
Green marvels at the constitution of the Always B Miki gelding as he’s been racing continuously for 12 months, Friday night’s start his 37th without a break.
“He’s racing the best up here now and he’s done it all on one preparation.”
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Ray’s comments
Friday night at Cambridge
Race 1: Spirited Belle
4.46pm
Delany: “I saw she’d been punted but somebody must know something we don’t as I’ve been working her myself and, while she feels all right and hasn’t put the boot in like at Auckland, I think she’ll need the run. She hasn’t got any high speed but feels like she will stay. She has improved a bit but I’d be surprised if she won.”
Race 1: Lincoln Maree
4.46pm
“It’s always hard from these draws but she’s a tough mare who will make her own luck at some stage. She’s going well enough - her drivers have all been happy - and she’s a little warrior who tries like hell.”
Race 2: Major Copy
5.12pm
“He’s only two and very inexperienced but he feels like a good colt and there’s a lot of improvement in him. He certainly caught a lot of people’s attention last time. I don’t know how good he is yet but he’ll be right there.”
Race 2: Prince Lincoln
5.12pm
“If he can lead without having to do too much work I can’t see anything beating him. I thought he went great last start. He pressed the winner hard ’til the corner then just flattened out in the run home, but he had every reason to do that after all the work he’d done.”
Race 4: Spirit Of God
6.12pm
“She’s been undone by bad draws. If she led easily from three she’d be hard to beat as she’s a good front-runner.”
Race 4: Spirited Peggy
6.12pm
“We’ve had her for only two weeks but she’s seven now and has had her chance to win one. She has a bit of speed but I think she gets pulling so we’ve got the Hidez (compression) hood on her and plugged her ears up.”
Race 6: Copy N Paste
7.10pm
“We won’t see the best of him for another six months. He’s been a slow developing horse but is improving all the time and getting stronger.”
Race 6: Jessie Lincoln
7.10pm
“If I was having a bet on one of them in the race it would be her. She deserves to win one. Her last two have been really good - she just ran into one who was a bit slicker last time in Major Copy.”
Race 6: Lincoln Dealer
7.10pm
“He’s a bit one-dimensional - you’ve got to feed him track and let him run - so the second row draw is a big handicap. To his credit I was surprised he finished so close last time after all the work he did. When he gets a decent draw and crosses them they’ll know they’re at the races. He’s got a big motor and tries hard.”
Race 8: Rivergirl Bella
8.08pm
“She clawed her way to the front last time but had nothing left at the finish. That won’t happen this time and she should lead easily from one.”
Race 8: Angelic Copy
8.08pm
“She’s had terrible draws but has been going good races. The others last time were just better than her but this is a big drop in class. With the right trip she could get some of it at huge odds.”
Race 9: Sugar Ray Lincoln
8.35pm
“He’s not quick away from a stand but he won’t muff it completely. He steps from the front line and Peter Ferguson was quite happy with his last run.”
Race 9: Lincoln Wave
8.35pm
“He bombed the stand the first time but to be fair all those horses were rushing up at him from the back and that panicked him a bit. He’s on 10 metres this time so that won’t happen.”
