Jason Lee has his sights set on next month’s Group 1 Victoria Cup with Keayang Tokyo after the lightly raced five-year-old’s win in the Hip Pocket Castlemaine Free For All at Melton on Saturday night.
Sent out a $1.60 favorite, Keayang Tokyo worked to the lead from his wide draw by the first turn and reeled off a 55 second last 800 metres to score with something in reserve from Rakajed and Louie Lou I in a mile rate of 1:53.6.
Lee said the margin could have been greater on the line. “He’s pretty casual and switches off a little bit in front,” Lee said.
At his previous start Keayang Tokyo finished third behind Catch A Wave after leading.
“With due respect to Catch A Wave who was amazing last start but this bloke could only see the one to his inside and outside, so he probably didn’t see the two horses on the extreme outside. I’m not saying he would definitely have beaten them but he would have been kicking a lot harder if he had seen them,” he said.
“Once we add a bit of gear and sharpen him up a bit he’ll be a better horse in front but at the moment he’s real sharp off a helmet.”
Keayang Tokyo boasts an impressive record of 11 wins from his 21 career starts.
“Early on as a two-year-old he wasn’t much good which goes to show you sometimes you have to give them a second chance and a bit of time because he came back and raced really well as a three-year-old,” he said.
“Then coming back from a spell he got kicked by another horse in the paddock and injured a bone in his back leg, it’s lucky we own him ourselves and could be patient with him.”
Lee said the son of Captaintreacherous would likely contest next week’s Group 3 Caduceus Classic before having a tilt at the Victoria Cup.
“The Victoria Cup is probably something that we would look at with him and there’s another nice race here next week, so we might be back here,” he said.
The win provided Lee with the middle pin of a driving treble at headquarters.
Earlier in the night he partnered Letsstartinheaven ($1.60 fav) to an authoritative win in the Logical Staffing Solutions Tatlow Stakes (2YO Colts & Geldings).
The Emma Stewart trained colt landed in the one out one back trail before Lee released the reins with 600 metres to travel and the son of Rock N Roll Heaven quickly put a gap on his rivals to score by 14 metres from Razor Horizon.
Promising mare Jilliby Ballerini ($1.20 fav) rounded off Lee’s successful night when she led all the way in the Aldebaran Park Trotters Free For All.
The race may well have been a track work hit out at Marg and Paddy Lee’s western district complex with the stable harnessing up five of the six runners.
Jilliby Ballerini withstood an early challenge for the lead from the Chris Lang trained Ollivici before cruising to the line and holding a four metre advantage from stablemates Aldebaran Vera and Keayang Stuka in a mile rate of 1:55.4 for the 1720 metres.
The David Miles trained mare Look Like Diamonds completed a hat trick of wins at Melton when she produced a trademark tough staying performance to take out the Hertz Melton Pace.
Miles pressed forward on Look Like Diamonds to assume the place outside the leader and $1.50 favorite Stormryder with a lap to travel and the four-year-old proved too strong in the home straight scoring by two and a half metres in a mile rate of 1:54.9.
“She’s a little ripper, there’s not much of her but she’s all heart,” Miles said.
“She’s as tough as boots and she’s never beaten, he’s a pretty smart horse Stormryder and to be honest the whole trip I was happy to run second to him but when she got him off the bridle she put paid to him,” he said.
