Lean Mean Machine has stamped himself as a leading Golden Rose prospect by producing a huge sprint to win the Group 2 The Run To The Rose (1200m) this afternoon.
Lean Mean Machine stamped himself as a horse to follow through his two-year-old campaign in Brisbane but was all but forgotten in Run To The Rose betting as punters rallied around Graff, Zousain and Performer.
Jumping from the gates well, jockey Tye Angland settled Lean Mean Machine off the early pace set by Jonker, Sandbar and Smart Elissim, who flew the barriers and injected a decent tempo from the outset.
Blocked for a run and at the tail of the field when he arrived in the straight, it looked a simply impossible prospect for the Zoustar colt, but he let down with a truly electric turn of foot to reel in Graff and Jonker and ultimately secure the biggest win of his racing career to date.
“He’s definitely the best looking horse in the yard and I think he performed that way as well,” Angland said after the Run To The Rose.
“I know I had a soft gate and I didn’t really do any work. It got really sticky on the point of the corner and I was going that good that I was nearly running up their backsides, and I needed to try and get him out.
“I didn’t expect him to pick up as many lengths as he did under just hands and heels, but his trial the other day showed me that he was definitely up to these horses.”
Chris Waller was on hand for Lean Mean Machine’s impressive Run To The Rose win and confirmed that the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) in a fortnight is his next target.
“He’s a pretty sexy-looking horse and he’s well named,” Waller said.
“Tye has been in love with him for the last month since he’s been involved with him. He rode him in a trial here one day and he said ‘I don’t want to get on any other horse in the spring, keep me on this horse’, and he was right.
“He’s obviously a very good horse and as we saw with his dad Zoustar, he came back as a three-year-old and just went to a whole new level, and it looks like this boy has done the same too.
“I’d say that in two weeks’ time, we’re going to have a hell of a match race on our hands with the Golden Rose.”
Lean Mean Machine is now the $8 second-favourite in 2018 Golden Rose betting, behind The Run To The Rose second placegetter Graff ($5.50)