3 minute read

Lucky Bucky had been a problem horse for a couple of trainers but a decision by owner Rick Polley to send the erratic gelding north to Longford could pay big dividends.

In Brief

• Change of trainer fixes Lucky Bucky.
• Brilliant trial convinces trainer to target Hobart race.
• The Hansons' stable star back in Tassie for a spell.

Polley sent Lucky Bucky to Longford co-trainers Ken and Tanya Hanson, but it wasn't so much their training expertise the owner was seeking, but the horse-riding talent of stable apprentice Kyle Maskiell.

Brendon McCoull partnered Lucky Bucky to a game win in a 1200-metre maiden in Hobart last Sunday, at what was his first start for his new stable, after which his co-trainer Tanya Hanson said the plan already has proven successful.

"Because the horse had become almost unmanageable, owner Rick Polley asked me to take hm so that Kyle (Maskiell) could ride him and from what we saw today the plan is working," Tanya Hanson said.

"He trialed really well over 700m at Longford during the week, but we thought 1100 metres might pull him up, which is why we were a bit apprehensive about running him over 1200m first-up.

"On that run you would think he will get further so there could be more scope than we first thought."

Hanson confirmed the stable's star And Beyond has returned from a hit and run mission in Victoria and will spend the next few weeks in the paddock.

And Beyond notched three wins in succession in Tasmania before venturing across Bass Strait for a race at Sandown two weeks ago which he won, narrowly but convincingly.

"We will give And Beyond time in the paddock, but we are considering cutting his spell short and heading back to Melbourne for another short campaign and then bring him home for a decent spell and set him for races during Tasmania's summer carnival."