Driven; Young emerging talent Leonard Cain guides Wicked Time to victory at Albion Park last night (Saturday). Photo by Dan Costello
Clear the runway, the Cain plane is taking off.
Leonard Cain, 18, is keen to keep building on his stellar rookie season and has set himself key targets for the new season.
Last night (Saturday), Cain landed his first metropolitan winner of the new season (2017/18) when successful aboard Wicked Time in the Gotta Go Cullect @ Egmont Park Stud Mares Pace in a time of 1:55.9 defeating Katniss by a half head margin.
“At first I thought I had been nipped right on the line but wasn’t completely sure so I was relieved when the number was semaphored. It’s a great feeling winning on a Saturday night, she looked well-placed and felt awesome the whole way and she tried all the way to the finish and had her ears pinned back because she wanted to win.” Cain said.
Punters were also relieved; Wicked Time was the $2.10 favourite.
The victory was his second on the Saturday night circuit following his maiden triumph behind Border Cross last month (August 19).
And the dedicated fresh-faced horseman is keen to keep racking up the winners, at all tracks including the Saturday night venue.
In his opening season (2016/17), Cain landed 55 winners from 535 drives and therefore created a new record by a Queensland driver for most wins in a maiden term.
That’s more than the likes of Grant Dixon, Luke & Todd McCarthy, Shane Graham, Natalie Rasmussen plus Pete & Narissa McMullen among many others.
The previous record belonged to Brittany Graham at 40.
Cain displayed natural poise and skill during that opening term which resulted in success at all three harness venues in the Sunshine State - Albion Park, Redcliffe and Marburg.
The son of Errol and Debra Cain, a graduate of the mini-trotting ranks, took on a role with the leading stable of Vicki Rasmussen and Shane Graham around eighteen months ago and remains their today.
And he’s grasped the opportunities, both on and off the track.
“Both Shane and Vicki have been tremendous, apart from family support; they’ve been the best thing for my career and gave me the best kick-start possible with a host of opportunities, advice and support.
“Naturally, I was absolutely thrilled with my results during my first season. I had a dream run to reach 50 winners let alone exceed that, it wasn’t even in my thoughts when I was first granted my licence.
“Shane has been a massive influence and is endlessly working to make me better, the amount of advice and experience he has given me over the last year has been fantastic and something I don’t take for granted.”
With 3 winners on the board for the current term, Cain is mindful he is well short of the record figure he set himself last season but is determined to improve on that figure again.
But he won’t make any bold predictions on what he’s hoping to achieve.
“To reach the same figure as last season would be huge but obviously I would like to expand on that number. The main focus will be to showcase improvement.
“I’ll be checking in with Shane as always while I like to watch and take in the techniques and tactics from guys like Chris Alford, Luke and Todd McCarthy plus Chris Geary among others.”
So, here’s hoping for another productive season.
