Lazarus N on the board again with second down under winner

World Champion shuttle stallion, Lazarus N, had his second down-under winner last Friday night (24th March) when the Jarrod Alchin trained My Ultimate Buddha was successful on debut at the Newcastle Harness Racing Club meeting.

The two-year-old colt was able to lead from his first look at the mobile on race night before handing up to the Clayton Harmey-trained Noisy Crusader soon after.

My Ultimate Buddha and Tom Ison remained on the leader’s back for the majority of the 1609m journey, and halfway down the straight, it looked like he would be settling for second after the leader skipped clear.

The son of Lazarus showed some great courage and raw speed in the finish to pick up Noisy Crusader and Blake Hughes, peeling off a 27.6 final quarter and stopping the clock in 1:57.7 for the mile.

MY ULTIMATE BUDDHA REPLAY

My Ultimate Buddha is out of the G1 NSW Oaks winning Courage Under Fire mare, Courageous Annie. Harnesslink followers might remember her for topping the PGGW Ready To Run Sale when prepared by Greg Payne.

My Ultimate Buddha is her fourth live foal and third winner. He has impressed his trainer so farm from what he has shown him in work and with his race debut.

“He was a buyback at the yearling sales after not reaching his purchase price, so that is how I come about getting him with Tumby Park Ltd.

“Sam Hewitt from Goulburn broke him in and always thought a bit of him. He wasn’t the best-gaited horse early on, but he really turned the corner after a spell. Since then, he has been a wee natural, and he reminds me a lot of the Bettor’s Delight stock with how laid back he is. Nothing worries him, and he is just the perfect horse to be around.

“He’s only small in size, but he is very well put together. He is clean going and just your perfect little racehorse. I don’t think he will be a superstar at this stage, but he will be a beautiful little money-earner,” he said.

When quizzed about being happy with the effort shown by the debutant in picking up the leader after being flat footed on the final bend, Alchin offered the following.

“My horses work at Menangle Park on a big open track, and not many of them get to experience a small track until they do some travelling.

“I’m not saying Newcastle is a small track, but there isn’t any camber on the bends, and they run and out of the bends very flat. When he ran round the last bend flat, he lost a bit of ground. I knew he was going to keep trying up the straight, it was just whether or not the winning post was going to come up too soon for him.

“He is such a good tryer and it was a great effort to pick the leader up the way he did. Again, it reminds me a lot of the Bettor’s Delight stock with how they always want to try their best really,” he said.

Alchin has another Tumby Park son of Lazarus in work after he too failed to reach his $60,000 reserve at the Queensland APG Sales last year.

“I’ve got another Lazarus 2YO called My Ultimate Cossie and I don’t mind him either. He went to the trials last week and he really disappointed me because he had won his two previous trials but he pulled up sick so we will just give him an easy week and he will head towards the APG series as well,” he said.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink