3 minute read
Newcastle trainer Kris Lees has started the new racing season with a rush of winners, setting a pace Australia's leading stables are finding hard to match.
Lees has won 17 races from 82 starters at a strike rate of 20.7 percent in the first 19 days of the season, placing him on top of both the Australian and NSW premiership tables.
On the national list the Lindsay Park team of David Hayes, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig are sitting second with 14 wins, one more than Chris Waller.
In NSW Lees has won 16 races, five more than Waller.
Only two of the Lees winners in NSW have been in Sydney but he has had only 16 runners at metro meetings compared to Waller's 61 starters for eight wins.
Lees finished last season with a personal best 249 wins to be fourth on the national table behind Waller (336.5), Lindsay Park (265.5) and the disqualified Darren Weir (263.5).
However his strike rate (17.28%) was far superior to those ahead of him as he sent out only 1450 runners compared to Waller's 2485 starters and 2035 from the Hayes/Dabernig team.
Lees is now training one of the biggest teams in Australia, the depth of his stable evident at the Newcastle trials on Monday when he sent out 35 runners.
They included all 10 runners in the two heats for Group and Listed horses, an example of the big hand he is going to play in feature races over the spring.
His headline runners in Monday's trials included G1 winners In Her Time and El Dorado Dreaming and crack pair Graff and Gem Song.
Graff and In Her Time held the spotlight in the opening 900m trial for the black type horses on the course proper.
Graff (Brenton Avdulla) won the trial by one and a half lengths from In Her Time (Nash Rawiller) in 55.55 seconds (last 600m in 34.26s).
Graff, now a four-year-old, will resume in the G3 Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on September 7.
Comeback jockey Nash Rawiller has been partnering In Her Time in her trials and is looking forward to riding her when she resumes in The Shorts (1100m) at Randwick on September 21.
Gem Song (Louise Day) finished third behind his stablemates in the 900m trial and is expected to trial again at Gosford on September 2 before he resumes.
El Dorado Dreaming (Avdulla) won the other 900m black type trial on the course proper in faster time than the first heat, running 55.43secs (last 600m in 34.49s) to beat stablemates Regimental Band and Aliferous.
She could run first-up in the G3 Cameron Handicap (1500m) on her home track at Newcastle on September 20.
Lees started his top stayers Sixties Groove (Rawiller) and Red Cardinal (Avdulla) in a 1200m heat on the Beaumont track.
Brisbane Cup winner Sixties Groove won the heat with Red Cardinal third.
Lees intends running Mr Garcia in Thursday's $150,000 Rowley Mile (1600m) at Hawkesbury while Invincible Gem and Le Romain are heading to Saturday's $500,000 Winx Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
Invincible Gem and Le Romain have come on well since resuming in the G2 Missile Stakes (1200m) behind Alizee at Rosehill on August 10.
Lees requires new riders for both horses as James McDonald and Brenton Avdulla have other commitments in the Winx Stakes.
