Two-year-old Double Or Nothing shows he really is something sweet
By Barry Lichter • 27 October 2018
Sweet Lou colt Double Or Nothing continued to impress as a leading Young Guns prospect for Lincoln Farms when he led all the way to win at the Pukekohe workouts today.
And seven weeks out from the start of the rich juvenile series at Auckland the Lincoln green team showed complete dominance, the sole newcomer Hughie Junior 10 lengths behind them in the 1609 metre heat.
Sent to the early lead from four on the gate by driver Andre Poutama, Double Or Nothing paced fluently throughout, with stablemates Man Of Action and Perfect Stride behind him, and powered to the line one and a quarter lengths clear.
His time of 2:04.9 was a full three seconds faster then he and Perfect Stride recorded last Saturday and, while a little quicker than trainer Ray Green anticipated, the experience will do them no harm, he says.
Double Or Nothing leads stablemates Man Of Action and Perfect Stride.“It was easy for them and they’ve had a good conditioning - they’ve been up a long time.
“They’ll have to go 1:55 to win a Young Guns race.’’
Perfect Stride, a brother to Friday night’s supersonic Auckland winner Chicago Bull, came from third in the running for Zachary Butcher to run second, with Man Of Action (Andrew Drake) a further half length away in third.
Double Or Nothing was untroubled to clock his final 800 metres in 60.3 and 400 in 28.4.
Mathew James (4) moves up to challenge on the home turn at Pukekohe today.
Green says there’s little between Double Or Nothing and Perfect Stride, and Man Of Action is also gaining ground on the top pair.
Man Of Action showed nice improvement on his previous outing when he broke on the home turn, Green fitting him with a rein pole today rather than a fixed pole.
The only other Lincoln Farms runner at the workouts, Mathew James, turned in a better run, though driven right out, to come from second last in the running in his 2050 metre heat to run a half length second to the Steven Reid-trained Red Atom.
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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.”
