Levante gets the better of La Crique in the $300,000 El Cheapo Cars WFA at Otaki.
Levante gets the better of La Crique in the $300,000 El Cheapo Cars WFA at Otaki.
Jockey of the moment Ryan Elliot had a homecoming to remember at the feature Ōtaki-Māori race meeting at the weekend.
The 24-year-old took out the feature Gr.1 $300,000 El Cheap Cars WFA (1600m) event aboard Levante and ended the day with three wins, a second, two thirds and a fourthfrom seven rides.
Although now based in the north, he was brought up just down the road from Ōtaki at Ōhau, and it wasn’t too long ago that he was tearing around the paddocks at home on his ponies as a young fella.
“It’s always good to win a Gr.1, but especially so when you come home,” he said.
“She [Levante] was spot on and felt so good. From the moment I jumped on I knew she’d be hard to beat. She’s a lovely mare.”
Ryan Elliot and Levante come back to scale after winning the $300,000 El Cheapo Cars WFA Classic at Otaki.
It was the third Gr.1 of the season for Elliot, coming just two weeks after winning the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa on boom three-year-old Sharp N Smart, while he had won the Gr.1 Telegraph Handicap with Levante at Trentham in January.
Elliot, who started riding in 2015, had now won seven Gr.1 races and his career tally of 346 wins gives him significant boasting rights. Both his mother Leanne and father Grant had been jockeys, as had his uncle Ross Elliot, who rode 335 winners — five at Gr.1 level.
The Ōtaki win was Levante’s fourth Gr.1 victory of her career and Elliot had ridden her in all of them. She had now won 12 races in 21 career starts and $1,207,672 in prizemoney.
Members of the Ōtaki-Māori Racing Club present the connections of Levante with a trophy for winning the $300,000 El Cheapo Cars WFA at the weekend.
The Ōtaki feature was expected to be a match race between Levante and La Crique, and so it proved. The two quality mares were well supported on the tote as equal $2.80 favourites and duly fought out the finish. La Crique was gallant to the line and finished at Levante’s girth, less than a length away.
Elliot said he saw La Crique out of the corner of his eye to his left, and it kept Levante up to her work.
“La Crique put up a real fight,” he said.
“But everything went to plan for us. She jumped well and I let her work forward at the turn and got to the centre of the track, and she saw out the mile no problem.”
There was drizzling rain from early afternoon that had the track downgraded from good to soft. Levante still managed to post 1:36.85 for the 1600m though, while Brando ran 1:10.49 to win the $40,000 JCE Construct Handicap over 1200m a few races earlier to suggest the track probably wasn’t too bad altogether.
Temyia Taiaroa slates the judge after winning the $40,000 JCE Construct Handicap (1200m) at Otaki.
The connections of Levante were now considering an Australian autumn campaign.
In two previous Australian campaigns, she had managed placings at the elite level over 1200m, first in the Gr.1 Newmarket Handicap behind Roch’n’Horse this time last year, and then another fourth behind Roch’n’Horse and Nature Strip in the Gr.1 VRC Classic at Flemington in November.
Levante is trained by Matamata couple Ken and Bev Kelso.
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