Bargain Buy Liquid Lunch Primed for Tassie Feature
- Monday, 03 February 2003 00:00
Liquid Lunch burst into AAMI Hobart Cup calculations with a powerful win at Caulfield last month, defeating Mapua in an open handicap over 1800 metres.
The gelding was unplaced at his subsequent outing when unsuited by a slow pace in a race at Caulfield over 2020m and last Sunday the galloper fine-tuned his AAMI Hobart Cup preparation with a dashing second in the Prime TV Cup (1600m) at Moe.
Trainer Pat Hyland was delighted with the geldings run last Sunday and expects him to be very hard to beat in the AAMI Hobart Cup.
"We paid only $10,000 for this horse and hes already won well over $60,000 in stakes in the three months weve had him and if we can win the AAMI Hobart Cup, he probably wouldnt have to win another race to make him the best buy of the year," Hyland said.
"He has yet to be tried beyond 2020m but he gives me the impression hell get the trip and he has been trained specifically for a 2400m race, which is why I was so delighted with how he ran at Moe on Sunday," the trainer said.
Liquid Lunch dashed around the field last Sunday and worked home strongly to finish second to Gold Robe, with Thunder Bay a close-up third.
Liquid Lunch is owned and raced by the trainers son, Christopher Hyland, who is his fathers right hand man in the training operation.
"Christopher is the assistant trainer of the business but when it comes to Liquid Lunch, I often feel like Im the assistant trainer and hes the boss," Hyland said jokingly.
The AAMI Hobart Cup has been Liquid Lunchs main objective since he won at Yarra Glen on January 2.
"I have been toying with the idea of running him in the AAMI Hobart Cup since he won a race at Yarra Glen and he has since done everything Ive asked of him, both in races and on the training track," Hyland said.
Hyland said top Tasmanian jockey Stephen Maskiell was most likely to take the AAMI Hobart Cup ride.
"I had hoped that Craig Newitt would ride my horse because he won on him at Caulfield but he has been booked on another horse so we are negotiating with Stephen Maskiell and he is likely to take the ride in the Cup," Hyland said.
Maskiell is Tasmanias most successful jockey and has two AAMI Hobart Cups to his credit, the latest being last year aboard the George Blacker-trained St. Andrews.
St. Andrews is running in next Mondays race but Kelvin Sanderson has been booked for the ride.
Media Release - AAMI Hobart Cup
