Trotting sire Muscle Hill produced a notable harness racing quinella at Addington last night, when two of his progeny finished first and second in the Storer Motors (Group 2) New Zealand Trotting Oaks.
The winner of the Oaks was the Mark Purdon/Natalie Rasmussen trained Luby Lou (Muscle Hill – Luby Ann), who whistled home in the middle of the track to easily beat the North Island trained Girls On Film (Muscle Hill – Regal Volo) .
Run on an easy track, the time for the winner was a very good 2-25.7 for the mobile 1950m, which equated to a 2-00.2 mile rate.
Luby Lou is raced by the Breckon Farms (Six of the Best) syndicate who have some high profile owners among their members.
Luby Lou syndicate among whose owners are Trevor Casey (left) and partner Kate Marriot,
and Glenys Kennard (left foreground ) and husband Phil, extreme right.
Mrs and Reg Storer, sponsors of the Trotting Oaks also feature. – photo All Stars Stable
The run of Luby Lou was so good tonight she would not be out of place in the 3yo Trotters Derby field, although Mark Purdon said on the All Stars website,
"I'm not quite convinced about Luby Lou tackling the male youngsters in the Derby yet."
"She was very good tonight and has a heap of potential but in an ideal world I would probably look at keeping her to her own sex at this stage. I want to assess how she comes through the race and what the opposition looks like before I committed to the Derby." he said.
The All Stars Stable also produced Jesse Duke to beat the stable-mate A Bettor Act in Heat 2 of the 2yo Sires Stakes and then trained the trifecta in the Group 2 Vero Flying takes won by Sicario from Anthem (2nd) and Funonthebeach (3rd).
Luby Lou winning the Trotting Oaks
Harnesslink Media