Cody Cole had been quietly confident heading into Saturday’s Pilet Contracting LTD / Pioneer Seeds 2YO 800 with Landlock (Merchant Navy), and the debutant duly delivered in an exciting juvenile contest at Wanganui.
The first of three wins on the card for jockey Kelly Myers, Landlock entered the race without an official trial and was slightly reserved leaving the barriers, but showed plenty of early clip to get on terms with race-favourite Princess Elsa ($3.30) before the home turn.
The pair went head-to-head in the straight and the filly looked like she may be on the front foot at the 150m, before Landlock fought back and found enough in the final strides to score by just a nose.
Cole, who trains the son of Merchant Navy out of Matamata, was pleased to see his work in training transfer to race-day in such impressive fashion.
“It was a really good effort, he hasn’t done a lot or had a trial, so he was very professional,” Cole said.
“Ability probably took him a fair way there yesterday as well, he wasn’t screwed down to win a half-mile race for sure.
“We just took him along quietly and every time we asked him to quicken up his work or step up, he’s done that. On Tuesday morning, we galloped him on the grass with an older horse and he worked really well, good enough to probably win if he did everything right.
“He did exactly that, so it’s lucky it worked out and Kelly rode him well.”
Purchased for $20,000 out of Woburn Farm’s Book 2 draft at the Karaka Yearling Sales in January, Landlock is eligible for the $1m Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) early next year, a race Cole will plan around over the coming months.
“He’s a Karaka Million-nominated horse and eligible, so hopefully he can work his way to there,” Cole said.
“We’ve got plenty of time up our sleeve and he’s got plenty of improvement and figuring out what he’s really doing between now and then.
“We’ll give him a little break to get over this, how long that’s going to be, I’m not sure. He’s had a big long trip down there and he’s a tired wee fella today, so he can have a break before we work out where we go from here.”
Bred by Katom, Landlock is the fourth foal out of Blue Blue Sky, a Lonhro mare who produced Listed juvenile winner Bright Blue Sky.
“He was well-related and just a neat little type, he looked like he wouldn’t take too long to get up and going and we wanted to find a horse that we could do that with,” Cole said.
“We wanted to get him out there quickly for the owners and he’s done exactly that, so it’s worked out very well.”
