Light Vision Sneaks Up On Cup Start

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 5, 2008

Michael Lynch

USUALLY, a galloper who has won four out of his past five races over middle distances at city tracks going into the Melbourne spring becomes something of a boom horse, especially where the cups are concerned.

But trainer Robert Smerdon, whose five-year-old Light Vision has just such a record, is determined to keep the spotlight off the Zerpour gelding and adopt a low-key approach on the way to the Melbourne Cup.

Light Vision, the $5 favourite with whom Ben Melham has cemented such a successful partnership, kept his impressive run going yesterday when he narrowly won the 2520-metre listed Bart Cummings from country-trained Baughurst ($7), with the frontrunning Zavite ($9) staying on for third under Darren Beadman, who was back in Australia for a hit-and-run mission to ride Tuesday Joy later in the day.

Light Vision has now scored four times at distances between 1600 metres and yesterday's 2520 in the past four months, and Smerdon is hoping he can keep the on-pace runner on the improve all the way to the first Tuesday in November.

The astute handler did not even bother paying up to keep Light Vision in the Caulfield Cup as both he and the horse's owner, Rob Gerard, the chairman of electrical group Clipsal Industries, have taken a realistic approach, reasoning it is better to run in races that Light Vision can win than tilt at windmills just for the sake of having a day out on a big occasion.

"It was a good effort. We are not going to the Caulfield Cup; we will just keep ticking away and he might end up in a Melbourne Cup - but he's still got to step up," Smerdon said.

"He's got to come up a notch to those races, but I'm just hoping he takes his form out to that longer trip. That's the key to the Melbourne Cup - running the 3200. We will probably go through the Geelong Cup or Moonee Valley Cup, something like that, and if he's good enough he will line up.

"Ben (Melham) is going really well with him but I think racing on the speed is good for any horse and that's something he's added to his repertoire this time round," Smerdon said as he explained how a change in racing pattern has worked wonders for Light Vision. "Maybe he can run 3200; he's always strong to the line. He goes like a horse who can stay, he keeps finishing off.

"The frontrunning came by chance at Caulfield in a mile race. We decided to give him a bit of a rev up because he was just starting to fall out the back and getting in the second half of the field and it's too hard to win from there. We thought for the future, just make him be a bit positive out of the gates, and he ended up leading and winning and he came here and led and won so we said, he can do that.

"His owner said, let's not run (in the cups) for the sake of it. If we can win the Queen Elizabeth, let's run him where we can win. I just think that's a realistic approach - let's not put them where they are not."

Ashley King, managing owner of Baughurst, was thrilled with the forward show of the lightly raced seven-year-old, who was given what he described as a "10/10 ride" by Jamie Mott.

"He had a nice run; once the pace went on he settled beautifully. The gap came early at the top of the straight. It would have been nice to have cuddled him a bit longer but it was a 10/10 ride by Jamie Mott," King said.

"If he pulled up all right we might have a look at the Winning Edge (at Caulfield next week) and see where that takes us.

"The Melbourne Cup is at the back of our mind; more likely at the moment is the Geelong Cup, Moonee Valley Cup, Werribee Cup.

"He stuck on well, so you wouldn't abandon the two-mile dreams at this stage."

Terry O'Sullivan believes that his six-year-old Dolphin Jo, who finished fourth yesterday, is on track for another tilt at the Melbourne Cup, in which he was fifth last year.

"We thought his run was really good. I think the muddling-run race didn't help our cause, but he was still working to the line and that's his caper - he can stay.

"I hope we can sneak a place back in the Cup field and run the two miles again this year. The horse is going well. He's better placed this year. I will run in the Winning Edge at Caulfield next Saturday and then go to the Moonee Valley Cup and if we could win either of those we would be assured of a place in the Melbourne Cup field.

"I think he's going equally as well as last year. He' a genuine two-miler; we'd be keen to have another crack," O'Sullivan said.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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