A BRILLIANT ride and great placement by his trainer proved to be the right ingredients for another impressive win by lightly raced five-year-old galloper Ladali at The TOTE Racing Centre in Launceston on Wednesday night.
Ladali was partnered by Kelvin “Iceman” Sanderson who opted to pursue a rails run in the home straight and that decision meant the difference between winning and possibly missing a place.
Sanderson had Ladali ($1.80) settled near the rear of the field of six but when the leaders sprinted he had the gelding in touch with the pace and ready to pounce when the field wheeled for home.
Southlander, that had settled midfield, loomed to win when he hit the front 200 metres out but he and eventual third placegetter Tuktoyaktuk were unable to match the strength of Ladali over the concluding stages.
Ladali has won from four and been placed once from only 11 starts.
The gelding’s trainer George Blacker missed the meeting as he is still recuperating from a hip replacement operation so his son Troy deputised.
“He won well tonight and with a big weight (60kg including the jockey’s vest) so I think he’ll go through his grades pretty well,” Troy Blacker said.
“He is a half-brother to a good horse Dad trained in Black Glenoel,” he said.
Sanderson also was delighted with the win and explained he probably had no option but to angle for a rails run in the straight.
When the leaders fanned wide at the top of the home straight it presented Sanderson with a saloon passage run.
“Getting the rails run made the difference – with 60 kilograms on his back I don’t think I could have gone around them (to win),” Sanderson said.
“A few of the jockeys were saying before the race that the fence was ‘off’ but this horse won in the worse going at his previous start two weeks ago and along the rails is always the shortest way home,” he said.
Sanderson has recently relocated to Tasmania from Victoria. He was indentured as an apprentice to the late Allan Stubbs at Longford but a few years ago he moved to Victoria where he married a Tasmanian and started a family.
The Sanderson clan, comprising Kelvin, wife Belinda and their son Angus are hoping to secure a property on the North-West Coast in the coming weeks having sold their property at Kyneton in Victoria.