Huston, we don’t have a problem

At $109 odds, it was a boil over in the $150,000 Group One WA Oaks for the three-year-old fillies with the Ron Huston trained Benesari Lane (Mach Three – Terrifying (Western Terror) flashing late to claim victory in the feature of the night.

Driven to perfection by Kim Prentice, the filly overcame her barrier eight handicap to settle midfield and was able to leave her run until the last 400m, when she was able to come home in 30.5 seconds, winning by a head in 1:57:8 for the staying journey.

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“I had a little bet because she is a bit of a one pace staying type and her last few races have all been sit sprint race. She had been keeping up, but she couldn’t sprint as quick as them. I thought if she could get a genuinely run 2500m, she was the best stayer in the race.” Huston said.

The $16,000 purchase from the APG Yearling Sales more than paid for herself on Friday night when adding the $96,000 prizemoney to her earnings.

“We missed on about 10 horses at the yearling sales, we were getting towards the end of the day and Vicki said to come and have a look at this little one and I thought ‘Gee she’s small’, but there wasn’t many left and I had a look at the breeding and it had a nice cross that I knew worked well with a couple of horses in Melbourne, so we had a crack at her and got her cheap enough” Huston said.

“She’s (Benesari Lane) no star but she’s probably got one of the best heart rates and best motors I have had in a horse, she just doesn’t have any high speed. “

Aptly named after Vicki Leas favourite drinking spot in Bali, there is no doubt that the pair will be celebrating the fillies win for a long time to come.

Huston was first involved in harness racing in the mid 1990’s, in Kalgoorlie where he was originally involved as a stable hand but went on to get his trainers licence in 2000. The 42-year-old is no stranger to racing success, with the Byford based trainer having talented pacer Jumbo Operator who earned just over $300,000 back in 2010. Ron currently has three horses in work and mentioned Robbie Rocket is his star of the stable who he is hoping to aim towards the Derby.

Driving honours were firmly with Chris Voak on Friday night with the talented reinsman steering home four winners on the night. Voak, who was last years leading reinsman is currently sitting in second place, with total stake earnings of over $563,000 in just over three months.

In the first he steered home the $3.60 favourite Perfect Major for Ross Olivier, backing it up in race 2 for the Olivieri stable with Boom Time NZ proving too strong for rivals.

In race 3, he partnered up with Barry Howlett on the consistent mare Star of Diamonds to take out the FFA Fillies and mares’ race in an impressive 1:55:3.

Race 8 was a family affair, with Voak steering home the $10 hope Rabchenko for his father-in-law,  trainer Frank Vanmaris, with the eight-year-old gelding winning by 3.6m

Ashleigh Paikos