\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Paul Symes\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Having delivered a first stakes success for Belinda Blanch, Lingani (America) will always hold a special place in the affections of her co-trainer, who is confident the stable\u2019s star performer is primed for a repeat performance in Saturday\u2019s Behemoth Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Courtesy of her victory in last year\u2019s Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m), Lingani also became the first stakes winner for her now deceased sire America (Snitzel), whose career at stud was brought to a close five years ago due to limited support despite a princely pedigree, with his dam Alinghi (Encosta De Lago) a four-time Group 1 heroine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the current Behemoth Stakes favourite Cicala (Tamasa) aiming to elevate further the profile of her rather obscure sire, unfashionable stallions could have their moment in the sun at Morphettville \u2013 albeit metaphorically, with heavy rain predicted to fall in Adelaide on raceday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That forecast, if proved accurate, will be music to the ears of Blanch, who joined her husband Peter on the training ticket a little over two years ago. For while Lingani is capable on all surfaces, her record suggests the mare excels in attritional conditions. Her most recent victory under Taylor Johnstone \u2013 by a mere seven lengths \u2013 maintained her perfect record on tracks rated in the Heavy range.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Dom Tourneur, who was on board for Lingani\u2019s black-type breakthrough, still recuperating from a serious spinal injury and Lachie Neindorf having recently made the move back to Melbourne, Johnstone retains the ride as the apprentice bids to land the third stakes win of her embryonic career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLingani pulled up really well from her last run so I can\u2019t fault her,\u201d Blanch told ANZ news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t need a wet track to win, but it certainly helps her cause because we know she handles it whereas other horses may not. She was obviously very impressive at Morphettville two weeks ago, and that\u2019s now three from three on Heavy tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions may have taken some of her opposition out of the race that day, but she won by over seven lengths and Taylor barely moved on her. The mare is in a great place physically and mentally, and while it\u2019s obviously a step up in class on Saturday, hopefully she can put her best foot forward again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team Blanch will be aiming to break the Jolly family\u2019s recent stranglehold on the first black-type contest of the season in South Australia, with smart mare See You In Heaven (Divine Prophet) \u2013 a $1 million acquisition for Yulong at this year\u2019s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale \u2013 going back-to-back for Richard and Chantelle Jolly in 2023 and 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before then, Richard\u2019s brother David had won three in a row, including a pair of victories for seven-time stakes winner Behemoth (All Too Hard), in whose honour the race is now named.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps surprisingly, the Jolly name isn\u2019t listed in the form guide for Saturday\u2019s renewal, which has drawn a compact but highly competitive field of sprinters including well-credentialled interstate raiders Recommendation (Shalaa) and Is It Me (Iffraaj), trained respectively by Ciaron Maher and Daniel Bowman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite respecting the quality of the opposition, Blanch is radiating positivity ahead of the $150,000 contest, which represents Lingani\u2019s second taste of Group action.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Her first came at Caulfield in mid-July in the Sir John Monash Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), a race won comfortably by Joe Pride\u2019s classy mare In Flight (Flying Artie). The occasion marked Lingani\u2019s first interstate trip and while her unplaced finish wasn\u2019t the outcome her connections were hoping for, it hasn\u2019t deterred them from repeating the experiment in the future.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought she actually ran OK at Caulfield,\u201d said Blanch, who managed medical practices for 25 years before officially entering the training ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got beaten five lengths but it was one of the strongest editions in recent years, so she was up against some very good horses and the race also wasn\u2019t run to suit. She was probably a little bit awestruck on the day, she\u2019s done most of her racing on her home track here at Morphettville, so it was all very unfamiliar to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t put us off taking her back to Melbourne at some stage, because we still think she can be very competitive in those Group 3 and Listed races \u2013 particularly if we were to get suitable conditions. We also think she\u2019ll be much better for the experience next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that she didn\u2019t cope with it, because she\u2019s a very relaxed mare and she\u2019s the most beautiful horse to handle. So she took the travel there and back in her stride, but she maybe did get a little overawed by the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of her ownership group \u2013 who also raced Lingani\u2019s dam Betty Butterscotch (De Beers) \u2013 made the trip to Caulfield that day, and they will again be out in force at Morphettville.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They include Gavin Tully, who owned a ten per cent share of Leon McDonald and Andrew Gluyas\u2019 multiple stakes winner Dalasan (Dalakhani). That may explain why Betty Butterscotch was sent to Dalasan last year, having previously been served by fellow South Australian stallions Dedline (Fastnet Rock), America and Barood (Choisir).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blanches have now saddled up three of her progeny, with the first-born Boolcunda King (Dedline) showing plenty of promise before a heart condition curtailed his career. With Boolcunda King\u2019s sister Boolcunda Dawn set to make her debut in the coming months and another sibling, an unnamed Barood colt, having been broken in recently, Betty Butterscotch is set to have a far greater impact in the breeding barn than on the racetrack, where she won just one of her 17 starts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHer owners raced the mare, and even though she maybe didn\u2019t have the greatest race record, she\u2019s produced some very nice horses for them,\u201d Blanch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoolcunda King won three races for us, including two in town, and we thought he could have been anything but unfortunately we had to retire him early because of his heart condition. He was a middle-distance horse whereas Lingani is an out and out sprinter, so they\u2019re very different horses but both very talented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owners always send the mare to South Australian stallions, and it\u2019s great that we get to train the progeny. Lingani\u2019s half-sister [by Dedline] is showing a bit of talent, she missed the start by about ten lengths at her only trial but she came home really strongly, so she\u2019s a work in progress and we\u2019ll give her plenty of time but she\u2019s shown us real glimpses of her ability in her trackwork. The mare\u2019s colt by Barood has just been broken in, so hopefully he\u2019s in the same mould as his siblings and can continue the family tradition.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for Lingani, her future plans after Saturday may be dictated by the elements, with connections keen to follow the country\u2019s fickle weather patterns in the hope of embellishing a racing resum\u00e9 which already includes six wins and more than $250,000 in prize-money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t really looked beyond Saturday\u2019s race at this stage,\u201d Blanch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019ll get through that run and see how she pulls up before making any concrete plans. It may be track and weather dependent, if there\u2019s a bit of rain around in Melbourne in the early part of spring then we would certainly consider putting her on a float to see if she could get another stakes win for her owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have some nice young horses coming through the stable, but she\u2019s definitely our flagbearer. This will be the fourth run of her prep, so hopefully she can keep performing at a high level for us for a little while longer, before she heads for a well-earned break.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Paul Symes Listen Having delivered a first stakes success for Belinda Blanch, Lingani (America) will always hold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-54526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}