KEY POINTS:
Humble first-season Te Aroha owner-trainer Lisa Anderson downplays her golden streak as beginner's luck.
Yet there's nothing fluky about the talent of Anderson, 38, and her partner on and off the track, Grant McLeod.
Both have been around horses all their lives.
McLeod once specialised in standardbreds, in
and out of the raceday cart. Anderson cut her trainer's teeth mucking out for the O'Sullivans and for trainers across the Tasman.
Their construction business had been their main hands-on focus of late.
But when their former trainer Mark Donoghue linked with Tony Pike, Anderson and McLeod took over the official reins at the 15-acre training base on August 1, last year.
"It was a little bit circumstantial I guess, but we just thought 'why not', it seemed like the perfect opportunity," said Anderson, who has a big chance to extend her dream run with Blink at Matamata today.
"Together we're a good combination."
Anderson, who only ever has a maximum of 10 to 12 horses in work at any one time, opened her first-season tally with Gabana at Te Awamutu in February and has been on a mini-rampage since.
Snip, a rejuvenated Loaded Command and her only Matamata entry, Blink, have all contributed to the season's run, at one point bagging four scalps in an unforgettable fortnight.
"There's no secret," laughs Anderson. "You've just got to look at your horses."
And Anderson saw enough in Blink's eye this week to give her confidence of winning another $7500 TBS bonus cheque with the fast-improving mare in today's capacity field for the NZI 2000.
She missed last time out in a similar grade at Awapuni on March 29. But Anderson says the 4-year-old, who finished on late for ninth to Lord, was tripped up by the unfamiliar track.
"It was her first trip away and she didn't travel that well either," she said.
Anderson had hoped for an easier season sign-off for Blink, whose soundness issues mean she sees more of the swimming pool than training track. But Anderson also knows there is one big, overriding factor in her favour.
The Berolini mare is a course and distance winner in the same class just two starts back - and she overcame near impossible odds to do it for regular rider Cameron Lammas.
"Last time there she got shuffled back to last and came from nowhere," Anderson recalled.
"I actually looked the other way when that happened; I didn't think she had that sprint in her."
The John Sargent-trained Shevchenko looms as the main danger on his home track in the fifth leg of the $50,000 Pick6.
The Van Nistelrooy 3-year-old is yet to race beyond 1600m.
But the son of a Sir Tristram mare looks like the trip will suit him and is also a past winner on the course.
Promising local filly Attalla (race five) looks close to a Pick6 anchor in the R70 sprint.
She won easily two starts back at Te Rapa in a slick time, but a slipped saddle last time out robbed her of victory at Te Aroha on April 5.
