Forbes star Lake Lugarno was labelled the ‘Winx of the west’ after scoring a brilliant win under the lights at Canterbury last week.
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The Barry Molloy-trained sprinter took out the Benchmark 76 Handicap in front of a bumper crowd, leading from virtually start to finish with apprentice jockey James Innes Jnr in the saddle.
Running the fastest time of the night for the 1100 metres races, Lake Lugarno ($4.80) led the way and moved clear down the straight to win by nearly three lengths from Difficult To Get (Tye Angland, $5) and Alert By Sea (Brock Ryan, $31).
It’s a bit of an achievement that she won in Sydney.
- Barry Molloy on Lake Lugarno
The $3.30 favourite Blowing Kisses, from the high profile John Thompson stable at Randwick, was further back.
“It’s a bit of an achievement that she won in Sydney – stepped up another mark,” Molloy said.
Owned by R.F. Mullavey, the Attunga stud and West Wyalong veterinary surgeon Geoff Boal, Lake Lugarno has an imposing record of nine wins and seven placings from 17 starts.
The five year-old bay mare has amassed $160,460 in prizemoney along the way.
Her only unplaced effort was in a class 2 over 1200 metres at Narromine in August, 2016.
Feature wins for Lake Lugarno include the Wellington Town Plate, the Cup Day Sprint at Orange and the Dulhunty at Dubbo when defeating the two best sprinters in the region, Danish Lace and Zarhron.
Last season Lake Lugarno won six races, the same amount as the champion mare Winx, and this led to the Forbes mare being labelled in the Sky Racing interview after the Canterbury win as “the Winx of the west”.
Molloy, a long time successful trainer, has a good team of assistants including trackwork rider Catherine Newcombe who has been closely involved with Lake Lugarno since the now five year old mare came to the Forbes stables as an unraced filly.
Before retiring from race riding, Catherine Newcombe was aboard for the first two wins by Lake Lugarno at Wellington and Cowra and since then the winning riders have been Cowra jockey Mathew Cahill (5 wins) and apprentices Chris Williams and James Innes jnr. with a win each.
Molloy said Lake Lugarno would get a month between races and spread out her race starts because of the hot weather.
That has been a rewarding tactic for the mare who has been only sparingly raced since kicking off her career in 2015.
