 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2003
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Lennon winning the PGG Southern Graduate |
In The Pocket colt Lennon reaffirmed his position as the front runner of the first-season pacers at Addington after a blip in the scoreline, but Mark Purdon knows the pack is not far behind. And that the dust won't have settled on the issue of 2YO Pacer of the Year until after this week's Welcome Stakes and next month's Yearling Sales Series Final, such is the quality of the opposition.
Fortunately though, about half of the pack are stablemates, which was evidenced in last week's $50,000 PGG NZ Yearling Sales Southern Graduate, where the first three home qualified for the $200,000 Final on May 9 and joined northern graduates in Born Again Christian, Anothernightout and Tango Tango.
This is a very classy and competitive crop of juveniles, and Lennon had to fight like a tiger to get past Sounds Like Albert in the passing lane after a good trip. Stablemate Likmesiah (Jimmy Curtin) also closed purposefully to be only a nose away and a length ahead of pacemaker and another Christian Cullen in Purdon's barn in Born Again Christian (Purdon), who wilted late after setting up a 57.3 closing half. Tumble (In The Pocket gelding) was not far away either for Colin De Filippi, nor was Classy Cullen, the third Christian Cullen and fourth Purdon runner.
Purdon, who handed Lennon's reins over to second-string driver Blair Orange because he is more bullet-proof at this point in their careers, said Lennon was now back in tune after "getting away on us a bit" when beaten into third on the track after leading up. "He had some hard racing, particularly at Wyndham after an early miss-cue, so we went easy on him for a while, and last time when I went for him he didn't respond," he said.
Lennon had twice put away Julius Caesar, in the Cardigan Bay Stakes in Auckland over Christmas and in the Sapling Stakes (in 1:56.9) at Ashburton in February, after sitting parked, and dead-heated for first in the Kindergarten Stakes in 1:57 after another tough trip before going under to Likmesiah and Classy Cullen. A few weeks and the addition of pull-up blinds, which had signalled things had been turned around when Lennon was worked at Addington early last week, was all that was needed to have him back to his forceful best.
Lennon, the first foal from the speedy Vance Hanover mare Penny Lane, has now raced six times for five wins and $81,000 after being purchased at the Premier Sale a little over a year ago for $68,000. Purdon was not entirely happy with Born Again Christian however, after trying for an all-the-way win. "He doesn't feel dead right so we might have to get him checked out."
Sounds Like Albert, an Albert Albert gelding from the winning In The Pocket mare Sounds Swell with Graham Court, was a $14,000 purchase last year and has now won over $10,000, $1500 of which was for being the first non-winner home, a scheme which also saw Tumble taking home $2800 for finishing fifth in his debut, a stake which is often better than finishing first in a maiden.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 9Apr03