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By Rod Fuller

After completing the hattrick of wins at Hawkesbury a fortnight ago, Like Lukey is poised to continue her rise through the ranks with victory in the Jack’ed 4X4 Mayor’s Cup at the Provincial meeting to be conducted at Port Macquarie on Sunday.

The Kris Lees trained mare broke her maiden status in dominant fashion at Scone last month and this was compounded when accounting for Release Point by well over two lengths at Muswellbrook two weeks later.

The daughter of Denman accepted the class rise with ease at Hawkesbury at her most recent run when settling in fourth position before racing clear to land the prize by around one length.

Jose Severo has established a great association with Like Lukey, and it is significant the talented Brazilian jockey has been engaged for the mount following his recent successes.

Jockey Jose Severo (Pic: Bradley Photos).

Severo has been a revelation for the Kris Lees stable and joined the Australian riding ranks with an imposing record of 239 winners with four at Group 1 level in his homeland.

He was Sao Paulo Jockey Club champion jockey in both 2020 and 2021 and has enjoyed immense success since relocating to Newcastle.

After displaying a pattern of settling behind the leaders and finishing strongly, Like Lukey should greatly appreciate the step up in distance and this will provide the testing material in the feature race on the program.

The key to the event revolves around Subarctic with all eyes on whether the Matthew Smith trained gelding makes the journey from his Warwick Farm base.

The former Victorian recorded a decisive win at Newcastle since relocating earlier in the month when accounting for Outcast Girl before producing a powerhouse burst when narrowly defeated by Malabar at Warwick Farm a fortnight later.

Punjabi Landing is a lightly raced gelding who tasted success at Ipswich recently and Paul Shailer returns to his former training base with high hopes for his son of Puissance de Lune.

It would be rare for the Kris Lees stable to leave the Port Macquarie track without multiple victories and the Newcastle mentor has strong chances throughout the day highlighted by Etude in race five.

The lightly raced daughter of Exceedance scored on debut at Muswellbrook in June and resumed with a sound second behind Zoubeauty at Taree earlier in the month with the appointment of Ben Osmond providing further confidence.

The prominent apprentice has taken all before him since relocating and presently sits on thirty-three wins in the current NSW Riding Premiership following recent victories at Randwick, Warwick Farm and Newcastle.

Rockbarton Flash should be rewarded for consistency with success in The Entertainment Grounds Maiden Plate after strong placings at Scone and Beaumont in his short career while Sweet Marlene will provide the testing material in the following event.

The former Victorian is a new arrival to the Cassandra Schmidt stable and was claimed in the shadows of the winning post by The Finest Hour at Coffs Harbour when debuting for the new stable.

Despite drawing wide, Sweet Marlene does possess good early speed and being prominent in the initial stages of the event could provide an advantage depending on the pattern of racing.

Port Macquarie Race Club is excited to host the Provincial meeting originally scheduled for the Gosford Race Club and a large crowd is expected for the quality program featuring over $300,00 in prizemoney.

The Gosford course proper work will see the home turn re-cambered to a gradient of 6% to maximise the competitiveness of racing and further works will see remediation of the current reverse camber in the home straight.

The finishing touches are being made to this $2 million infrastructure project and all in racing wish the club the very best for work that will greatly benefit racing at Gosford for years to come.

Summer racing continues at Port with the Hawaiian Beach Party Race Day on Friday 3rd January with everyone encouraged to wear Hawaiian Shirts and enjoy the festivities."

Further information regarding bookings and other details are available by contacting the Port Macquarie Race Club office on 02 6581 1964 or email on admin@portmacquarieraceclub.com.au.

Selections:
Race 1 - 3 Formal, 4 Royal Commodore, 2 Firework
Race 2 - 9 Rockbarton Flash, 6 Mr Crowning Moment, 3 The Bentley
Race 3 - 6 Sweet Marlene, 2 Escalante, 8 Brutal Belle
Race 4 - 5 Like Lukey, 3 Subarctic, 2 Punjabi Landing
Race 5 - 7 Etude, 5 Cutepi, 3 Sneaky Sofia
Race 6 - 4 Power of the Brave, 6 Heir Apparent, 3 Shihab
Race 7 - 3 Smiling Prophet, 4 Scholl Deep, 7 River Pat

All the fields, form and replays for Sunday's Port Macquarie meeting