By Duane Ranger
Lewy Risk has won both of his workouts since New Zealand Cup week but his trainer Lew Driver still thinks he will be a run short on Friday night at Alexandra Park.
“He won his first trial back in December (2:02.2 mile rate) and then he cut his foot open. He kicked out at a water-bath at Kumeu and had to have a bit of his hoof cut out.
“It’s grown back and I can assure you we only have troughs and no baths at the property now. He just gets a bit full of himself when he’s going well. He has a tendency to lash out a bit,” Driver said.
Then last Saturday at Pukekohe Raceway the Elsu gelding won a seven-horse R60 to R83 workout over the 2050m mobile (right-handed) in 2:37.8. He got there by a nose from Rocknroll Lincoln and paced a 2:03.8 mile rate and came home in 57 even and 27.2.
“I was pleased with that run. He’s completely over his foot injury now, but I would have liked to have got one or two more trials into him before Friday’s race.
“I’ve been waiting and waiting for a mobile start for him and this is his first opportunity this week. I’d say three or four weeks down the line he will be at his prime,” Driver said.
“In saying that he could win on Friday. He never stops surprising me. He’s a real enigma though, and just gets too full of himself sometimes” he added.
Lewy Risk has drawn six (of eight) in Friday’s $14,999 IRT Mobile for the R72 to R90 pacers. He is rated R83. The 7-year-old bay will be driven by James Stormont who got him home in Saturday’s Workout.
The last time he raced Lewy Risk finished second last in a $18,00 Free-For-All on Show Day and three days prior to that run he also ran second last in Lazarus’s New Zealand Cup.
“You just never know with him. He’s as bright as a button, which at times can be a worry. Whatever he does on Friday he will improve a heap on the run. We will just hang around with him in Auckland and look for mobiles.
“I can’t go anywhere because I have a nice team of unraced 2-year-olds and yearlings coming through the ranks,” Kumeu-based Driver said.
Now that Lewy Risk is seven, Driver has his fingers crossed that he could emulate the feat of his former pacing star, Gaelic Skipper.
“He ran second in the Inter-Dominion grand final and also won the Cambridge Flying Mile when he was nine so I’m hoping this fella can also get better with age.
“It’s just a matter of keeping your fingers crossed with him and hoping he gets around all right. He flaps a knee, cross-fires, and wears spreaders, but I know he can pace and run good times when he’s right.
“You just never know with him though. I just want him to get around safely and improve on what he’s done of late,” Driver said.
Lewy Risk has raced 60 times for eight wins, 13 placings and has banked $111,282. His most memorable performance to date was when finishing second in the Group Three Rangiora Classic in 2015.
He is owned by Driver and was bred by Alabar Stud.
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