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Lochinvar Art has been nominated for a Saturday night showdown with Copy That and Bondi Lockdown after trainer Rod Lakey revealed the champ had bounced back quickly from his surprise failure.
If all accept the TAB Gammalite Free For All is shaping as a fittingly tough test of some of pacing’s strong horses were, who will all carry question marks after Copy That and Lochinvar Art both disappointed at their last starts while Bondi Lockdown’s first up since July.
Lakey said Lochinvar Art had been treated for a lung infection following his eighth at Melton on September 3, his second start since an injury enforced six-month spell.
“There was a little bit of potentially asthma and lung infection. Nothing bad at all. They’ve treated him and nothing seems amiss,” Lakey said.
It was an encouraging sign for the camp given Lochinvar Art’s recent injury history, but those fears have been put to bed and Arty “seems really good in himself”.
“We were really happy with his first up run (when second to Torrid Saint),” he said. “That might have flattened him a little bit more than I realised.
“I’d thought he’d recovered but with that hard run, the asthma and lung infections it maybe affected him.
“You can only go off how he’s acting, how he’s looking and that he’s eating up. All signs are there are no issues and we expect him to get back.”
The next challenge for Lakey is to decide who’ll be the fourth driver to carry Lochinvar Art reins when he steps out for Saturday night’s feature at Tabcorp Park Melton.
Only David Moran, Luke McCarthy and Nathan Jack have previously steered the $1.4 million winner, but with the latter now aligned with Ray Green’s Copy That one of the best seats in Australasian racing has opened.
Lakey said he’d “have a talk to (owner) Kevin” Gordon before finalising Saturday night’s driver, but whichever way they go the race looks certain to “be fascinating”.
“He might draw the front row, which would probably be a nice thing to allow him to move forward. He could either look for the front or a sit from there.”
It’s great to also see Copy That back straight up from Saturday night’s eighth placing, when he was driven hard early to lead in a 26.7-second first quarter and, according to Jack, “blew up big”.
“Long time between runs and (he’s) second up in 10 months,” Jack told TrotsVision. “(Trainer) Ray (Green) wasn’t too concerned, he just thought he was a fraction underdone and maybe we were a little bit ambitious.”
The race could well be critical, with the Jet Roofing Kilmore Pacing Cup (September 23), TAB Smoken Up Sprint (October 1) and Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup (October 8) to follow in quick succession.
