Slow maturing Jessie Lincoln finally gets it done, not a bad job for a $3500 weanling buy

It might have taken 15 starts but in the end bargain buy Jessie Lincoln broke her maiden status in clinical fashion at Cambridge on Thursday night.

Backed down from $4.60 into $2 favouritism, the Lather Up filly made short work of her opposition, new driver Zachary Butcher working to the lead after 500 metres and easily staving off a late run by Awesome Choice to score by a length.

It was the 29th win for the season by Lincoln Farms’ trainers Ray Green and Nathan Delany and one which was never in danger, according to Green.

“Zac said she switched off when she went clear and she picked it up again as the other horse showed itself. But she was never going to get beaten.”

Green said he wasn’t surprised it took Jessie Lincoln 11 months to win a race - she didn’t start racing until the end of her two-year-old season.

“She was a big rangy, slow developing filly who needed time to mature.

“I don’t see why she won’t go on with it. I don’t know how good she is but she’s certainly capable of winning a race or two more.”

Green originally bought the filly for himself, attracted to her type at the 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock weanling sale at Karaka.

“I buy them on type, pedigree is a secondary consideration. You can make a case for every horse on pedigree these days.

“She was a nice enough filly, ticked all my boxes, and at $3500 she wasn’t going to send you broke.”

As it turned out, Jessie Lincoln did have a star hiding in her pedigree but when she went through the ring no-one knew about her now famous half-sister Coastal Babe.

Steven Reid’s filly didn’t start racing until three months after the weanling sale but it took just three starts for her to win a Group I race, the Caduceus Club Classic that September. The Downbytheseaside mare has now won 16 races, seven of them in the United States.

Jessie Lincoln is raced by Lincoln Farms’ owners John and Lynne Street, their business manager Ian Middleton and a bunch of long time supporters in the Green Machine Racing Syndicate, the Red and Blue Syndicate and Glenn and Ann Cotterill.