A win in tonight’s Victoria Derby would mean the world to the Kialla team of Laura Crossland and David Moran.
The partnership presents exciting colt Lochinvar Art for the $200,000 Group 1 classic at Tabcorp Park Melton and, despite a back-row barrier, the pacer’s trainer is going in confident.
“I’m really excited actually … I’ve just got a really good feeling about him,” Crossland said.
“He is a once-in-a-lifetime horse for us being so young. He’s really easy to work with and he just takes us on a ride that every young person dreams of.”
Lochinvar Art qualified for tonight’s final in the toughest of the heats last Saturday night at Ballarat, finishing third behind Derby favourite Im Another Masterpiece and star Sydneysider Muscle Factory.
But it’s how he pulled up that intrigues the most.
“He certainly needed the run last weekend,” Crossland said.
“We tried something different after Sydney, because he had such a hard run we sent him to the water walker to freshen him up. I think it might have not quite been enough for him and he blew up pretty badly after the heat.”
It means the winner of seven of 13 could improve markedly tonight.
“We’re able to get a lot more work into him this week,” Crossland said.
“Everything is different about him again. He was a bit blasé when he came home (from Sydney) but he’s back in the swing of it now.”
The Sydney run referenced above was a powerful second-place finish behind Muscle Factory in a crazy-fast 1:49.6.
And Lochinvar Art was away from the peg line in that run. “I actually felt sorry for him, he just went so good … I was super proud of him,” Crossland said.
Crossland, 34, and reinsman Moran are a developing team that is emerging as one of Victoria’s most exciting.
Last season they had 61 wins from 189 starts and they’re on track to eclipse that this year.
Lochinvar Art’s owner, Kevin Gordon, is a big part of their success, Crossland says.
“He’s fantastic. He’s really been great to us. He’s spending up at the yearling sales again this year and basically gives us a free rein.
“We worked a lot of years with just average horses that you have to try and win races and now all of a sudden it’s sort of turned around and we’re starting to get other owners on board buying horses, so yeah it’s going great.”
Lochinvar Art is double figure odds tonight at TAB.com.au, with Kiwi star Im Another Masterpiece heavily backed into odds-on favourite.
The leading local chances, according to the market, are Emma Stewart-trained Breeders Crown champ Hurricane Harley, Muscle Factory for Shane and Lauren Tritton, and Dean Braun prepared War Dan Delight.