Leeann Lee has the special touch for Sweet Lucifer

Leeann Lee has found the secret to success with Sweet Lucifer and they’re proving a force to be reckoned with, with the four-year-old now a harness racing winner of three from just seven starts for the new stable.

After purchasing the gelding some months ago for just $7,5000, Lee took her time with the sensitive gelding and she has well and truly been repaid, with Sweet lucifer finishing in the top two at all seven attempts for the Byford based owner/trainer.

Leeann Lee made mention that she had always liked the gelding and despite doing things wrong in his races, he was still placing, and she knew he was the type of horse she would like in her stable.

“I like quirky horses, and I knew one on one would suit him.

“He’s just an exciting little horse.” She said.

After bringing ‘Louie’ home, they soon discovered he was fiercely strong in the cart and with Lee joking that it took days for her arms to recover after she first worked him, she soon invested in a jogger and that became his regular mode of work, which appears to have worked wonders on him.

It’s a family affair for the Lee family, with Leeann’s daughter involved in riding Sweet Lucifer in his beach work, and husband Rick involved in the fast work of the four-year-old, the dedicated group didn’t let winter deter them from heading to the beach multiple times a week, with Leeann often spending extended periods of time in the water with the gelding.

“It takes a lot for me to be happy with them, I am watching all the time, even the way he walks, the whole thing, the whole time I’m watching,

“I had him down at the beach on Sunday, in the water for fifty minutes just stood with him in the water,

“Not that he stands, he walks, I have him on a lunge rope and I just let him walk up and back, I stand, and he walks.”

“Just things like that make a difference for him, help him to just settle, he’s just a dude really, he’s one of those horses you can hug around the neck and he’s happy with, loves that sort of attention.”

Always dabbling with a small team over her involvement in the sport, Lee’s interest stems back to when she was a child and her father Bill Brindley was a voluntary steward at Wagin in the early 70’s, with the family purchasing their first broodmare in 1972.

It took 14 goes to get one fast enough to make the track, but that was Scotts Finale, who eventually won two races in town for the Brindley family, but Lee is confident that Sweet Lucifer definability has the potential to be the best horse she’s had in her stable.

“He’s really fast, there’s no two ways about it, he is really quick, it’s just a matter of working with him.”

With gear adjustments taking place and a change of the way he is shod attributing to his success; Lee is confident he was just always the type of horse that suited the smaller one-on-one stable life and Donald Harper has been the best driver choice for him, with Harper very calm and cool headed in the cart.

Leeann Lee trained her first winner in 1984 at York, and that horse was called Charlie Lee, with Lee laughing that he won in 2:14:0.

Sweet Lucifer will head back to Pinjarra in a fortnights time, hopeful he can continue his winning ways, and although this years four-year-old line up is looking incredibly strong, she is hoping they can do enough to get a start in the $35,000 4YO Classic at Pinjarra on November 4.

“I think as he’s getting further into his campaign now, he’s getting more confidence in himself, that he can do it.”

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA