Late charge lands Aspiration Quality for Lekvarte

[Wandering Eyes]

Classy New Zealand-bred mare Lekvarte collected her second stakes win of the season with a brilliant late burst in Saturday’s A$250,000 Gr.3 Mostyncopper Aspiration Quality (1600m) at Randwick.

The five-year-old was sent out as a warm favourite for the fillies and mares’ feature on the strength of her recent form, which included a win in the Gr.3 Belle of the Turf Stakes (1600m) at Gosford two starts back and a strong finish for fifth in the Gr.2 Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on February 24.

But Lekvarte’s hopes looked forlorn for a large part of Saturday’s race. She was slow to leave the starting gates and dropped out the back of the 17-horse field, then came up behind a wall of horses in the home straight.

But jockey Tommy Berry weaved a way through and Lekvarte did the rest, accelerating superbly and charging home down the middle of the track to win by three-quarters of a length.

“No matter how much I try and wake her up in the barriers, she just flops out,” Berry said. “So she doesn’t really give herself a chance in the early stages of her races. But when you’ve got a mare that can let down like she does, it opens up a lot of doors.

“I was in the middle of the ruck in the straight and didn’t know where we were going to go, but I just banked on her ability and had to ride her patient. I knew I had a horse with a better turn of foot than anyone else in the race.

“It’s great to do it for the owners, who are good friends of mine and have been waiting to get a horse like this for a long time, so it’s awesome.”

The Joe Pride-trained Lekvarte has now had 27 starts for eight wins, five placings and A$756,430 in stakes.

By Westbury Stud stallion Reliable Man, Lekvarte is out of the black-type Encosta de Lago mare Plumm, who was runner-up in the Gr.3 Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m) for Grahame Begg.

The talented grey was sold as a yearling through the Westbury Stud Book 1 draft at Karaka in 2020, knocked down to BK Racing & Breeding in conjunction with Andrew Williams Bloodstock for $210,000.

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