By Ray Hickson
Six wins in 10 starts is an enviable record for any horse to build but trainer Cameron Crockett is confident the best is still ahead for Lonhro’s Queen.
The four-year-old came to him as a maiden after three starts and while she pocketed a couple of Highways last winter the Scone trainer is adamant she's gone up a notch or two and has the $2 million The Kosciuszko in the diary for later this year.
After wins at Scone and Hawkesbury in this campaign, Lonhro’s Queen chases a hat-trick in the Neville Waters Handicap (1200m) at Randwick on Saturday.
“She’s the best one I’ve had for a while,’’ Crockett said.
“She came to me with okay form, nothing to get too excited about. From the day she got here I knew there was something about her.
“We were confident when she came back in she was the best she’s been. She’s totally different, she was bigger and stronger all over and looks more athletic every time.”
Aside from how excited he is about Lonhro's Queen, she's also a bit special to him.
Crockett, of course, gained a lot of his experience working with his father Max at Gooree and he also worked there in his own right as the main horse breaker prior to gaining his trainer's license.
So he knows a bit about how the Gooree horses develop and amazingly, as a teenager, one of the first horses he broke in was her mother Queen Of The Hill.
Lonhro's Queen wins at Hawkesbury on April 9
That was some 20 years ago and Lonhro’s Queen is the first horse he’s trained for Gooree.
Lonhro’s Queen carries 57kg after the claim for Braith Nock who rode her to victory over 1100m at Hawkesbury on April 9.
Crockett said while the mare has won at 1200m twice, in a maiden and in one of her two Highways, he’ll learn a lot about what the immediate future may hold through her performance over the trip in stronger company at Randwick.
Not only because that’s the track and distance of The Kosciuszko but with a view to what he’ll target through his home track carnival in mid-May.
“The main reason we went to 1200m was they didn’t run that 1100m real quick the other day and she outsprinted them,’’ he said.
“I didn’t want to fall into that trap of going back in distance and getting run off your legs when you’re third-up.
“We want to run her in something at the Scone carnival. Initially it was the Ortensia (over 1100m) but there’s also the Luskin Star at 1300m, and the Dark Jewel (1400m), that weekend.
“We need to see her over 1200m in this company as well and we can get her ready for the Kosciuszko on the back of this prep.”
All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting