By Jonny Turner
Lone Wolf gave racegoers a glimpse of his true potential when he dashed to victory at Ashburton on Thursday.
The pacer had handed out plenty of his headaches leading into his maiden win – to punters, to his owners and to his trainers Brent and Tim White.
All signs leading into his victory suggested Lone Wolf was ready to make his amends and he definitely did that when winning for Sarah O’Reilly.
“He has hurt us a few times making some bad mistakes, but we made a few gear changes after his last start and they seemed to have worked in his last few trials,” Brent White said.
“His work at home had been very good leading into that race.”
Though he is clearly still not the finished product, White expects Lone Wolf to do a big job on the track.
“I think he has a lot of high speed, Sarah really didn’t ask him for much.”
“He just does what he has to do and he is a lovely moving horse.”
“He is a beautiful pacer.”
Sarah O’Reilly drove a patient race behind Lone Wolf, who would up stylishly to score.
White credited the junior driver for her outstanding drive as well as her work with the horse at his stables.
“The week before at the trials he had to be passed because he had been a bad boy.”
“I clocked him home (800m) in 54-54.5sec and he jogged it.”
“When he came out yesterday everyone probably expected him to go straight past but Sarah drives him at home and she only asked him to get serious the last bit.”
Lone Wolf’s win came in the days following Cranbourne’s departure from the White stable.
The five-year-old headed to Australia a 12-race winner with more than $200,000 in stakes.
“It is sad to see him go but that is the way it is.”
“The owners decided to take the money and go in their own directions with their horses.”
“He will be in Melbourne til about March and then on to America.”
Known as a tough staying type, Cranbourne won twice at Group 3 level – in the Summer Cup Free-For-All and the Methven Cup.
“He won his first race at Timaru and went on from there and got better and better.”
“There have been some good wins, one of the ones I really liked was when he missed away at Ashburton and gave them a start and still won by a couple of lengths.”
Cranbourne has joined David Aitken’s Victorian stable.
