This weekend sees the running of the time honoured Group One VRC Derby at Flemington and we'll be cheering on current third favourite Larry's Never Late (Pentire-Laebeel) as he attempts to topple the undefeated Whobegotyou, currently the hottest property in Australian racing.
Bred by Angela and Tom Williams, Larry's Never Late was sold through the LA draft at the 2007 Karaka Premier Sale where he was a $77,500 purchase by Robert Roulston Bloodstock for owner Jonathon Munz.
Laebeel who is now owned by LA has a yearling half sister to Larry's Never Late by Pins and foaled an O'Reilly colt on Sunday.
Even with his standard bearer Armada (Towkay-Dance in Time) still to resume this season, Towkay already sit's in fifth position on the Hong Kong General Sires Table.
The John Size trained More Bountiful (Van Nistelrooy-Centaine Gu Li) successful over 1400m in Hong Kong on last Sunday was a $38,000 purchase from our 2006 South Island Sale draft by John Foote Bloodstock. This is the second individual Hong Kong winner bred by LA client Helen Phinney after Speedy (Towkay-Stella Suprema) scored earlier this year. Earlier on in the race card LA also had another winner, Didi (Pins-Selliera), bred and sold by LA for $140,000.
The Sue Harty and LA bred Parole (Towkay-Out on Bail) recorded her fourth win scoring over 1355m at Wyndham last Friday.
It's going to take a herculean performance to role a horse like Whobegotyou but the way Larry's Never Late has been getting home over distances up to 2000m, he looks a dead ringer for running the challenging 2500m right out and hopefully he can go one better than Gorky Park, another LA sale draft graduate, who also had the misfortune to run into another reasonable horse called Efficient, when second to last years Melbourne Cup winner in the 2006 VRC Derby.
