Chris Lang and Let Me Thru win the 2011 SEW-Eurodrive Australasian Trotting Championship
A brilliant victory tonight at Melton’s Tabcorp Park has seen superstar Nagambie squaregaiter Let Me Thru underline his class and announce himself as chief threat to illustrious stablemate Sundons Gift’s undisputed position as Australasia’s top trotter.
Sent out a $4.30 second favourite in the Group 1 SEW-Eurodrive Australasian Trotting Championship, the striking son of Muscles Yankee replicated his Australasian Breeders Crown win over Down Under Muscles and resisted the Kiwi threat of I Can Doosit in the $150,000 feature.
The win immediately led his ebullient trainer Chris Lang to dream of what may lie ahead.
“A lot of the pundits wrote us off after last week but he showed what a great horse he is tonight,” the champion conditioner said. “This (series) was his first step out into open class and he’s won both races.
“The only thing that would be better than beating the Kiwis at home is beating them on their own soil now, so it’s onward and upward to Christchurch and the Inter Dominion.”
Starting from gate six directly outside his two main threats, Let Me Thru jumped from the tapes to find the lead easily in the 2760-metre stand start feature run at Tabcorp Park for the very first time.
And after cruising through a lead time and first quarter of 95.6 and 32 seconds respectively, the reigning three and four-year-old Breeders Crown champion was always going to be hard to beat.
With the field chopping and changing their positions before Mark Purdon’s raging favourite I Can Doosit finally found the breeze, a sulky clear of Down Under Muscles in one-by-one cover prior to a second section of 31.1, Chris Lang Jnr was sitting pretty; and when he unleashed the shackles, there was little those behind him could do to stay in touch.
Ripping down the back straight in 28 seconds flat, the foolproof five-year-old speared away from his rivals before careering home in a final fraction of 29.5 to record his fifth Group 1 triumph.
Chris Alford’s electric trotter Down Under Muscles was brave in defeat, fighting on to run second 5.2 metres behind the winner with Grand Prix runner-up La Mosca sizzling home to deny I Can Doosit third place almost four metres further away.
And while it may have been cold comfort to the beaten brigade, Lang wanted it known that in his mind no horse, not even his dual Inter Dominion winner could have beaten Let Me Thru tonight.
“The one thing I’d like to know is if anyone thinks Sundons Gift could have sat outside this horse (Let Me Thru) and beaten him, because I don’t think he could,” the gun horseman revealed.
“He’s a real horse of the future this bloke, and with a brilliant drive tonight he showed everyone what we already knew about him.”
