Graeme Lord has welcomed the opportunity to use Victorian jockey Brad McLean as the duo again seek to collaborate for another Great Northern Hurdles win with D'Llaro.
The Cambridge trainer booked McLean for the D'Cash gelding in last year's Schweppes-sponsored feature at Auckland and the engagement proved a masterstroke witha memorable 3-length win.
McLean afterwards told Lord that he'd be happy to return to New Zealand to ride D'Llaro in any future Ellerslie assignments.
The 11-year-old will be having his final Great Northern lead-up in today's Harrison Lane Hurdle (3350m) at Ellerslie and a trans-tasman phone call confirmed the arrangement for this weekend.
"Brad's just got that experience and he's got that knowledge of riding him in a big race now after last year," Lord said. "He's got beautiful hands and he can get a horse into a lovely rhythm like he did in the Northern last year. The horse jumped perfectly and settled so well for him. People were saying before the race that he wouldn't see out the 4190m, but he was so relaxed for Brad that he went to the line full of running and probably could have gone another lap had he been asked to."
Lord said D'Llaro was progressing well in preparation for his title defence on September 9.
"He's going along really nicely, we're very happy with him. His run at Te Aroha the other day was just what we wanted," Lord said of D'Llaro's third placing behind this weekend's rival El Corby in a restricted hurdle at Te Aroha a fortnight ago.
"How he ran was exactly how I read it. He improved 12 lengths on those horses from what he'd done in his previous hurdle at Te Aroha. He goes well at Ellerslie and this is the right race to tackle now, two weeks before the big one.
However, Lord is wary of the emerging threat from the likes of The Shackler, Monarch Chimes and El Corby, who between them have won eight of their last nine hurdle races.
