Two wins in eight days

David Van Ryn’s emerging young harness racing trotter Uptown Lad (Sebastian K) took another big step forward in his progression with a second win in eight days at Tabcorp Park Menangle in Sydney.

For the second straight week, the Marong-trained gelding executed a successful hit-run mission up north by scoring an ultra-impressive 29.2m win over 2300m in a heat of the HRSNSW 2YO Trotters Foundation.

Unlike his previous week’s win when Uptown Lad was fast off the gate and led all the way in winning by 21-metres, the gelding had to reel in the runaway leader Dreambigaimhigh, who had opened up a 25m gap on his rivals, with 600m to run.

The son of mare Downtown Miss showed a tremendous burst of acceleration to catch the KerryAnn Morris-trained gelding on the home corner before shooting clear for an easy win.

It made it three in a row at the start of his career for Uptown Lad, who won on debut at Maryborough on April 15, and has followed up with two on the trot in Sydney.

Each of his last two wins has been more impressive than the one before.

“We were just going to drive him with a sit (on Tuesday) to educate him, but he’s always shown heaps of speed – he just loves racing,” Van Ryn said.

“Sutt (Shepparton reinsman Leigh Sutton) said he was on the back of those two in front and when he pulled him out he quickly went past those two. He went to switch off and then all of a sudden he saw the other horse out in front and he just chased him down himself.

“By the looks of it he just likes to win.”

UPTOWN LAD REPLAY

All going well, Van Ryn and Uptown Lad will be back in Sydney for the $25,000 series final on June 18.

“As long as he continues to eat up and is okay, we’ll keep pushing on,” he said.

“He looks to have pulled up better than he did the last trip, but if he doesn’t work well or something else happens, we’ll pull the pin and stay home.

“The only thing is it’s a night meeting, but we’ll go up the day before again and go from there.”

The longer-term goal is the $50,000 Breeders Plate final at Menangle on July 2.

Van Ryn’s decision to embark on a New South Wales campaign was made after the two-year-old missed a number of race starts back home in Victoria.

It has proven to be a blessing in disguise.

Uptown Lad boosted his prize earnings to $21,984 from his three starts.

by Kieran Iles, republished with permission from Bendigo Advertiser