Nikol Franco wins at good odds

It’s unusual for a horse carrying the Spreydon Lodge colours to start at odds of 15 to 1, but that was the case with Nikol Franco in Race Seven at Oamaru yesterday. Her formline of ten to none may have put a few punters off.

“She hasn’t been anything special all the way through. She’s just done enough to keep us interested. On her dam’s side there’s been some nice horses that have done a good job overseas, so she was worth persevering with because of that. We thought if we could win a couple of races it would keep the breed going,” said McRae.

The Art Major filly is out of the Union Guy mare Nature Franco which won three races and left four win mare Nemero Franco.

Nikol Franco won on debut at Addington in February before leading then stopping at her next start at Westport.

“She can choke down sometimes, so we put a choking device on her. It’s not obvious because she doesn’t make a lot of noise but when she gets keen, she can cut her own wind off.”

She was then given a break before resuming at the Met, but she broke and finished eleventh.

“She’s a funny old thing who can get worked up when she’s behind the mobile, so we pulled the plug and took her back to the stands where she’s a lot more settled.”

In today’s race she was tucked away early before getting off the inside at the right time. She was late getting clear and just when pacemaker Wolfenstein looked to be in for a hometown win, Thornley drove Nikol Franco hard at the line and she got up to win by a head.

“When I saw the draw, I thought she wasn’t going to have a winning chance, but it was a ten out of ten drive from Craig.”

Now a high rating R50 horse McRae said it’s going to be hard short term to place the mare in the highly competitive Canterbury circuit.

“We may have to wait until Christmas when things thin out a bit to place her in a suitable race but she’s probably looking at the broodmare paddock next year.”

View the Oamaru results click here!

by Bruce Stewart