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Lake Huka overcame greenness to steal the $65,000 Hortpark Stakes Initiation race (1000m) in the shadows of the post on Sunday.
The Guillotine four-year-old has not taken too long to show his potential, which was clearly apparent during his solid trial form at Kranji for trainer Laurie Laxon before a creditable second to Fine Choice franked that form on debut in a 1000m race on August 30.
Unsurprisingly backed down to even-money favouritism second-up, Lake Huka duly won, but gave his backers a scare as newcomer Keystone (Syafiq Hazman) proved hard to reel in inside the final furlong. Jockey Michael Rodd would attest to the hard time he had in the saddle from start to finish.
“He’s a hothead and a real handful. Although he was better today, he still doesn’t do what I want,” said the Australian jockey.
“He doesn’t like the bit in his mouth and he keeps fighting me, but that is the only way for me to control him so he has to learn to work with it.
“He has plenty of potential, plenty of ability but he has to learn to settle down a bit.
“We have discussed running him over turf but the way he is running, if he’s wide over the Polytrack, it’s still okay. Not so over turf.”
Lake Huka jumped well but was eased to the rear by Rodd, settling two to three wide without cover from the back. At the top of the straight, he still had all to do but he showed the ability Rodd was talking about by wearing Keystone down with every stride before collaring him right at the wire by a head.
Lake Huka recorded a winning time of 59.49secs for the 1000m on the Polytrack. Debutant Miss Waimataitai (Mohd Firdaus) ran well to finish third another three-quarter length away in third.
Laxon was happy with the win by another horse named after New Zealand's famous area (Huka Falls is of course the original), which was also the first leg of an eventual hat-trick of wins (Blossoms Sequel and Hee's A Maverick), but said that Lake Huka was still work in progress.
“He likes to hang out around the bend,” said Laxon. “I think he might do better on grass but we will keep him over the Polytrack for the moment.
“He will be better over 1200m.”
With this win and his debut second, Lake Huka has brought home prizemoney worth around $50,000 for his owners, the Silver Fern Racing Stable.