Trainer Peter Moody is contemplating the prospect of black type after New Zealand-bred mare Life Lessons completed a hat-trick of wins in Saturday’s A$130,000 Ladbrokes Market Control Handicap (1400m) at Sandown.
The four-year-old daughter of Tavistock had won at Moe and a midweek Sandown meeting in her two previous appearances, and on Saturday she graduated to city class in impressive fashion. Produced in the straight by rider Daniel Stackhouse, she quickened smartly to score by a length and a quarter.
Life Lessons has now had five starts for three wins and a placing, earning A$126,600 in stakes for owner-breeders Ramsey Pastoral Pty Ltd.
“Winners win, don’t they? And when you get mares in this vein of form, you’ve just got to keep the smile on their face,” Moody said. “You try not to train them too much and just keep them happy. She seems to be really enjoying that.
“Daniel sat and waited, got her well through the dip and balanced nicely. Her turn of foot from probably the 300 to the 100 was really good. He knows he’s got that under him now, and we can probably look to sneak her out to a mile and ride her in a similar vein. If she can quicken like she did there, it’s going to help you win more than you lose.
“I think she’s a low-grade stakes filly, at worst. We’ve just got to assess where we’re at in terms of the time of the year. She probably has one more run in her, and then we’ll ease up a bit and try to target a nice race in the autumn somewhere.”
Life Lessons is the first foal out of the Encosta De Lago mare Brockman’s Lass, who slipped a foal by Preferment the following year. The mare has subsequently returned to Australia and has been served by All Too Hard and Invader.
