Lady Of The Light aims for summer success at Alexandra Park after tough spring

Lady Of The Light.

After a spring in which little has gone right, trainer Jeremy Young is hoping Lady Of The Light has a better summer – and wouldn’t mind it starting a couple of weeks early at Alexandra Park tonight.

If Young and his owners had got their way, Lady Of The Light could have been at Addington last week in our greatest race of them all, the IRT New Zealand Cup.

She was a ballot and only just missed a start, and while he admits Lady Of The Light would have struggled, his team still wanted to be there.

“It is the ultimate and we would have loved to be there,” he says.

As it turned out, Lady Of The Light instead ended up in a vastly different unwinnable race at Cambridge last Friday in which she started off a 30m handicap over 2200m where the leaders paced 2:47.1 in the wet and she never got into the race, finishing a brave fifth.

“That has sort of been her whole spring – not much going right,” says Young.

“But I think now she is getting back into some suitable races, with the big aim being the Queen Of Hearts in a couple of weeks.”

Tonight, Lady Of The Light starts off the front line over 1700m, with her biggest worry being Sooner The Better being drawn inside her, and such a good sprinter.

The question of the race may be whether Sooner The Better can lead and, if he does, whether driver Scott Phelan would consider handing up to Lady Of The Light, thinking he might be able to beat her for speed up the passing lane.

The pair should have the respect of most on a fast front line, but over the sprint trip, it will only take one driver chancing their arm to change the complexion of the race.

The night also features a very even intermediate trot in which in-form Shez Bella and Dream Of You face big handicaps, while Pantani is off the front but also woefully out of form.

He has galloped in his last three starts after earlier looking like one of the best 3-year-olds in the country. It would not surprise to see him bounce back tonight.

Earlier in the night, Young warns punters that Eyre I Am (R1, No. 1) could be a better chance than his $7.50 opening quote suggested.

“He is going to win races up here and the way this field stacks up tonight could suit him, being the only horse on the front line,” says Young.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.