Uptown Lad a handy type for Bennett

Newcomer to WA, Uptown Lad (Sebastian K) has brought up his first win on the board for the Karen Bennett stable, at just his third harness racing appearance in the state.

Punters were confident the three-year-old could get the job done in race 7 at Gloucester Park on Saturday night (Oct 14), with the son of Swedish stallion Sebastian K working his way to the breeze over the 2503m trip, coming out on top by a half-head margin over impressive trotter in Scootin Around, giving Kyle Harper the second leg of his driving double on the night.

“He’s a difficult little horse, he’s going to be a nice horse but he’s a bit difficult at the moment,

“But he’ll learn, he’s only young,

“He doesn’t want to go in the parade ring, he doesn’t really want to line up sometimes, sometimes at home he does a lot of pulling, but he’ll come right with a bit of time and patience.”

UPTOWN LAD REPLAY

With a long-standing relationship with David Van Ryn, the pair have struck up quite a good working rapport, with Van Ryn well aware of what type of horse Bennett is looking for, and when Uptown Lad wasn’t looking to make the grade in Victoria, Karen was soon approached with the option to buy the young trotter.

“I think he’ll go on with it, but we’re not going to push him, we’re not going to race him every week let’s put it that way,

“He gets very uptight, and we did back him up from the second the other day at Pinjarra and it was a hard run,

“And he had a hard run last night, so we’re just going to take our time with him,

“We might race him every fortnight until he settles down, he gets wound up.”

Confident that he’s more than capable in a stand and a mobile, Bennett confirmed Uptown Lad is a pretty safe trotter once he gets away, she was confident going into Saturday night’s race, mentioning that he is ‘pretty smart.’

“That race at Pinjarra was a cracker run, it was a great run really, I thought he would have stopped up the straight, but he just kept on fighting, he’s got that will to want to go.”

Taking on Your Kidding around the same time, he made his debut on Saturday night in the same race, finishing 81m off the stablemate.

“He’s a bit immature, but he just needs a bit of practice,

“Over the other side they race in their own class, they don’t have all those top ones breathing down their necks all the time,

“Your Kidding was racing in maiden company, I think he’s had six or eight placings, without a win because he’s in his own class, he just plods along,

“He’ll get there one day.”

With the team holding steady at 5/6 in work, Elish Star races at Pinjarra today in race 1 on the card (12.43pm WST) starting from barrier 3, driven by Lauren Harper.

“He needs a bit of a break too, I think, every time I say we’ll give him a break, he seems to go good, so I keep him going again.”

“He’s an old plodder, and he’s done a great job, he’s probably come to the end of his run, he doesn’t do anything wrong, he just can’t keep up with the fast ones now,

“To be fair, if we put him in with Uptown Lad, he would lap him.” She joked.

“He’s done a brilliant job, but the newcomers are just getting better.”

For complete race entries, click here.

by Ashleigh Paikos, for RWWA