Lhasa aiming to continue unbeaten synthetic streak

[Wandering Eyes]

Lhasa (Hellbent) will be out to continue his unbeaten streak on Cambridge’s Synthetic track on Wednesday when he lines-up in the D & A Diesel 1300.

The four-year-old son of Hellbent has won all three of his previous starts at the track, including a last start victory over the same distance, and trainer Mark Treweek is hoping he can keep his winning momentum going.

“He is unbeaten at this stage on the synthetic, so he will go around again,” he said.

“Hopefully he gets a nice run from there (barrier two). He has drawn in before there (Cambridge Synthetic) and got a nice run.

“It’s probably the best field he has come across on the synthetic, so it will be an interesting race. There are a couple in there with very good form on the synthetic as well, mainly Monza, but as long as he gets a decent trip, I think he will be hard to beat. He has been working well, I am really happy with him.”

All going to plan on Wednesday, Treweek is looking to head south to Awapuni’s Synthetic meeting on August 9 to try and capture the lion’s share of the $100,000 on offer in the 1400m special conditions race.

“Since he has been going so well on the synthetic, we would look at one of the series races,” Treweek said. “There is one at Awapuni over 1400m that we would look to go to. He needs to run tomorrow to qualify for it.

“A lot of money has been spent on putting these synthetic tracks in, I enjoy racing on them, and it is nice to see a bit of prizemoney thrown at racing on those tracks.”

Following his Awapuni test, Treweek said Lhasa will likely head for a spell ahead of summer racing.

“We will probably back off him a bit,” he said. “We only wanted to give him the three or four runs and then give him a bit of a break. He raced well through last summer and he is pretty handy on the grass as well.”

Treweek will also head to Cambridge on Wednesday with last start placegetter Seamsew, who will contest the Garry Edge Tribute 970.

“He is a big horse who has had a few issues with his knees, so we have tried to keep him fresh and we can’t do too much work with him,” Treweek said. “The 1000m races on the synthetic really suit him, so we just try and target those with him all the time.

“He has been working well and should go a nice race. He has drawn out (9), but you have only got one bend from the 970m, so I don’t think it makes too much difference for him.”

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