Happy as Larry for a race-to-race double

Our Lukas maintains his lead to bring home the Ipswich Cup

The man who chose Queensland as his state of origin has been rewarded with a race-to-race double at Ipswich Cup Day on Saturday, June 13.

Top jockey Larry Cassidy had a crowning end to his day when he booted home Our Lukas (NZ) in the Listed Channel 7 Ipswich Cup Handicap 2150m followed up by Iguazu in the Queensland Times Provincial Cup Handicap 2150m.

The feature race for the 20,000 strong crowd was was the Ipswich Cup and the consistent Our Lukas (G5 Generous IRE-Parfore NZ) continued his top form to nail the Cup for the leader of the metropolitan trainers premiership Robert Heathcote.

“Let’s hope it never ends,” exclaimed Cassidy after the win, a week after he picked up a Group 1 gong aboard the John Wheeler-trained Court Ruler in the Queensland Derby.

Cassidy made the move to Queensland in January and has already moved up the premiership ladders with 42 wins so far this season. The ex-New Zealander has a good affinity with the Heathcote stable and Our Lukas and was pleased to pick up the win.

“He’s (Heathcote) been a big supporter of me since I’ve been up here, along with a lot of other main trainers,” said Cassidy. “You know when you ride for these trainers you’re always going to be in the firing line because they’ve always got theirs right on the day.

Cassidy and Heathcote had a plan to lead the race and it certainly worked in their favour with the gelding holding out Macknuckle (Scott Seamer) and Jujulio (Bobby El-Issa) by a length and three quarters and a further three quarters of a length in an all-the-way victory.

Larry Cassidy had a good day out at Ipswich (Noel Pascoe photos)

“I’ve raced a lot at Ipswich over the years. Particularly in staying racing there’s nearly always a scrimmage as they go past the winning post for the first time because the track is smaller and it’s certainly a lot tighter that some of the metropolitan tracks,” said Heathcote.

“I said to Larry be up front out of trouble.

“I‘ll be honest I was quite surprised how easy he got to the lead and he was basically left alone in front so Larry could then use all his guile and cunning and experience and just race the horse beautifully.

“Fortunately nothing took us on.

“The tail (end) of the times basically tells a story because the Ipswich Cup in the last 600m ran quicker than the Eye Liner sprint so he basically gave any horses behind him no chance of running him down.”

Heathcote is confident in the horse’s staying ability and is excited at the prospect of what they could continue to achieve.

“He looked to me very early that he had the ability but he didn’t know what to do with it and that’s why we’ve been very selective and very careful with his placement and programming and ultimately it’s paid off with a race that I targeted right from the word go this preparation,” said Heathcote. “It was his main goal.

“The fun that I get out of training him is I don’t know how deep his tank is. It’s a wonderful thing to have a horse that each time you take him to another level they are excelling, and this guy is. Every hurdle I put in front of him he clears it and clears it well.

“He’s still relatively lightly raced. I think that was only his 24th start so as a five-year-old with low mileage on his pedometer, oh geez he’s going to be a horse to have a lot of fun with in the next couple of years.”

Heathcote wasn’t on course for the targeted win but part-owner Barry O’Toole was on course to accept the Cup.

“I like the confidence of the owner Barry O’Toole,” said Heathcote. “He actually went to the races with a prepared speech in his pocket. I thought that was rather amusing.”

Cassidy’s second win came in the last race of the day, the Provincial Cup aboard the Lawrie Mayfield-Smith-trained Iguazu (G4 Giant’s Causeway USA-Japari (NZ).

Cassidy tracked Rezyana (Jason Taylor) in the running but peeled away when the opportunity arose to make their way to the front.

“He got back to about mid-field in a fast run race,” said Cassidy.

“I was happy the way we were travelling getting down the 1000m. We got to about the 800m and the horse in front of me (Rezyana) wasn’t really travelling that well so I decided to come out and push forward and I made quite a quick move to the home turn.

“The horse came back onto the bridle and was travelling very easily and after the home turn he was too good.”

Iguazu won by a commanding three lengths in front of Derivative Receipt (Owen Turpin) with $101 chance Another Ali (Bobby El-Issa) third by two and a half lengths.

Iguazu moved to Mayfield-Smith’s stables early this year and has since found form with two wins and finishes never far from the front.

“They sent him up to me from provincial NSW and his form wasn’t all that flash,” said Mayfield-Smith.

“I think he won at Goulburn but he wasn’t a 2000m horse.

“I got him rolling. Once he got up at that distance of 2000m he just kept improving.

“He’s got me out unaware in the way he has improved. I said to the owners he could be a nice horse next year but he’s come a bit quicker.”

Cassidy agreed Iguazu has the potential to improve. “I quite like him as a stayer. He’s improved with each run,” he said. “I think next preparation he could probably develop into a very handy horse.”

QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Hollie Roberts – June 15