By David Nagel
Pakenham trainer Andrea Leek is dreaming big and hoping to add the biggest prize in Australian racing to an already bulging trophy cabinet after Heir to the Throne scored a tough win in the $50,000 BenchMark 70 Handicap (2400m) at Sandown Hillside last week.
Leek was super-successful and captured plenty of silverware as a jumps jockey, riding Team Heritage to victory for trainer-husband John in the 2004 Grand National Hurdle at Flemington.
The Leek’s also dominated the Oakbank carnival that year, with John training, and Andrea riding, Boxter Blue to wins in the Von Doussa and Great Eastern Steeplechases.
The pair also teamed up for another huge success when The Big Ask jumped his way to victory in the 2006 edition of the JJ Houlahan Hurdle at Flemington.
Since giving up life as a race-rider more than a decade ago, Andrea has continued to play a huge role in the families racing interests, with the Leeks working as a team, but under John’s moniker, until just recently, when Andrea took over as trainer while John pursued his love for cattle breeding.
Heir to the Throne, who the Leek family purchased for $35,000 earlier this year, has now had seven starts for the family with Wednesday’s success his third win in a short space of time.
Andrea now has two wins from her first three starts as a trainer after Heir to the Throne backed up a win at Sale in late July with an impressive staying performance at Sandown.
The Pentire/Royal Successor seven-year-old gelding was forced to work hard early from the outside barrier in the 10-horse field, and was caught three-wide with cover down the back.
Star jockey Jamie Kah got to work at the 400-metre mark, rustling up Heir to the Throne who hit the front at the 200 and narrowly fought off a late challenge from Damien Oliver aboard Bondi Sands.
Leek said Heir to the Throne possessed some strong staying qualities and would now be aimed at higher honours…and possibly the biggest prize of all!
Heir to the Throne is a younger full-brother to 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Prince of Penzance.
“The further he goes the better and today the track has obviously dried out a fair bit so may have taken a bit of his brilliance off him, but yeah he’s flying,” Leek told racing.com after Wednesday’s win which defied his wide barrier.
“That’s just barriers, they can get you beat, we’re lucky we had Jamie (Kah) on and she just cuddled him and rode him beautifully.”
Leek will now carefully map out a plan that could end with a trip to Flemington on the first Tuesday in November.
“There’s a benchmark 78 over 2500 at the Valley coming up, that was our plan to go there and then, ideally, if he can win that, we’d love to go to somewhere like Flemington, where it’s a big track and give him a real chance to show what he’s got,” Andrea said.
“We’ve put in a sneaky little nom for the Melbourne Cup, you never know, you’ve got to dream…and that’s what our dream is.
“He’s already given us excitement, just coming here today…and you’ve got to dream.”
Kah said Heir to the Throne had done well to overcome a sticky gate, and a tough run early, to hold on for a courageous victory.
“I just to Andrea, he’s a push-button horse, he’s a lovely ride, and if something took us into the straight earlier, he probably wins it better than he did,” Kah said after the race.
“He probably thinks about it a little too much but he’s got the ability underneath him.
“I was in two minds about whether to come back on him, but they were going to go too slow for him, so I just played it out around the turn.
“I wanted to make sure we had cover down the back straight because it’s very windy out there. We did, he relaxed, and in the end it turned out to be a good run.”
Kah said Heir to the Throne, despite his age, definitely had the potential to rise through the ranks.
“I think he can go through his grades this prep, he’s a great stayer, he’s a great ride, he settles and he’s got that in his favour and all he can do is win, and he did, so it’s onwards and upwards from here.”
The next four Wednesday’s have all been set down for Sandown – ending on 8 September.
