Gussey gets pleasant surprise at Pukekohe
Lance Gussey pulled off a longshot upset when Allaces (NZ) (Ace High) broke through for her maiden victory at Pukekohe on Friday, and the Cambridge trainer is hoping her stakes-winning stablemate Joshua Brown can do the same when he resumes at Te Rapa on Saturday.
Homebred mare Allaces belied her 50-1 odds when taking out the Show By SkyCity 1600, having fallen out of favour with punters following her previous four unplaced runs.
A change of tactics were implemented on Friday, with jockey Lynsey Satherley utilising their ace barrier to take a sit behind pacemaker Vibes and Tides (NZ) (Ocean Park), and while she struggled to keep the leaders back, she showed a good kick down the straight, reeling in her rival and finding again late to run out a comfortable 1-1/4 length victor, much to the delight of Gussey.
“I am very happy,” he said.
Gussey said Allaces had shown ability at home but failed to bring that to raceday, putting her earlier runs down to immaturity.
“She couldn’t get a decent run (in her prior starts) because she wasn’t fast enough to join the pack and I think she was a little bit scared too,” he said.
“I said to Lynsey to try and get to the front because if she is scared to run with them, she might be scared to get passed, and it worked.
“We persevered with her because she had good sectionals. She has shown a fair bit of ability, but I did not expect today though.”
Gussey is hoping Friday’s victory is a turning point for Allaces, and he is now excited about her prospects over winter where he will likely test her on the seasonal Heavy tracks and her local polytrack.
“She had one trial over 1000m at Te Awamutu on a Heavy track and she stayed with the pack, which is promising,” he said.
“We were actually thinking of going to the synthetic if she didn’t perform today, she trains on it all the time.
“We will just go with the flow and see what she produces.”
Buoyed by Friday’s win, Gussey is heading into the weekend in high spirits, with his stakes winner Joshua Brown (NZ) (Dalghar) set to resume at Te Rapa on Saturday in the Jones Trucking 1200, for which he is a 19-1 outsider with TAB bookmakers.
“I am pretty stoked with the way he has come up, I am quietly confident,” Gussey said. “He has been training the best he ever has. The only doubt that we have got is that the track is going to be a bit hard for him.”
Joshua Brown thrives on winter racing and the more forgiving ground it provides, which was highlighted by his victory in the Listed Opunake Cup (1400m) on a Heavy10 track at New Plymouth last July.
Gussey is keen to head back to New Plymouth to defend his title, with further Taranaki targets also in the mix.
“We will probably go back down there (for the Opunake Cup), and we are looking at a race down at New Plymouth later on this month over 1400m just to give him a bit of a practice,” Gussey said.
