Double Lou will contest Saturday night's $300,000 Racing and Sports The Rising Sun at Albion Park. Photo by Club Menangle
Sydney pacer Double Lou made quite the impression on debut in Queensland last Saturday night at Albion Park when he sat three-wide for the majority of the 1660 metre trip scoring by decent margin in a fast 1:50.9 mile rate.
Owned in the Riverina by the Rees family’s Johnny Star Racing, the Bailey McDonough trained and reined gelding proved that he is well up to the challenge of contesting this Saturday night’s $300,000 Rising Sun at the same venue.
Following last week’s effort, McDonough spoke with pride of his horse’s performance and is looking forward to seeing how Double Lou can shape up against this high-quality field.
“He was awesome last weekend, and a performance like that certainly proved the class that he possesses,” said McDonough.
“After drawing gate seven I anticipated that I would be able to roll forward to the chair with him once the field settled, but that did not eventuate and we were caught on a limb.
“Once they backed off the tempo it left us in no man’s land, so it left me with no alternative but to push on and fortunately he was good enough to keep on coming up the straight.
“In some ways it was an ideal hit out going into this week’s feature as the run has tightened him up perfectly, however I was initially a little bit sceptical that the hard slog may have gassed him.
“But he licked the feed bin clean and feels like he has come through the run well.”
Double Lou has come up with barrier five for Saturday’s Group 1 feature and has hot favourite Captains Mistress drawn to his inside in gate three which makes finding a spot up close quite complex.
But the booking of Australia’s current leading reinsman, James Herbertson and a potential for an early speed battle may play in the hands of the Sydneysider even though he will start as an outsider.
