Loucasso
YOUNG NSW trainer Seaton Grima is poised to go to the next level.
Grima, just 23, boasts almost 200 career wins, but has by far his best team yet, headed by recent headline-grabbing stable addition Loucasso.
The three-year-old has raced just nine times for seven wins and over $400,000 in prize money. He’s a raging hot favourite to win the world’s richest pacing race, the $1.5 million TAB Eureka at Menangle on November 21.
Grima revealed he had another pacer, No Notthebuttons, to thank for Loucasso joining his stable.
“They’re both owned by Jamie (Durnberger-Smith, Summit Bloodstock) and Aaron (Bain) and they’ve made it clear the success I’ve had totally turning around No Notthebuttons is the reason they’ve trusted me with their best horse (Loucasso),” Grima said.
No Nothebuttons joined Grima’s stable in late May and his seven starts for the trainer have netted five wins and two seconds, the last five at Menangle.
He’s facing his biggest test from gate two in Saturday night’s Kevin Newman free-for-all against star mare Lux Aeterna (gate one) at Menangle.
“I’ve always liked the horse and asked Jamie if I could train him about a year ago, so to finally get him was a buzz,” Grima said.
“To sit outside the leader and win over 2300m last week in a 1min53.2sec mile rate shows how good a horse he is. I still haven’t found the bottom of him.
“He’s at least going to be a really good free-for-aller, but you hope and dream he makes it into Grand Circuit races, something like the Victoria Cup is in October.
“I had Helluva run fifth in the Hunter Cup earlier this year and he was a nice horse, but on their work at home, No Nothebuttons is much better than him.”
Loucasso is a longer term project, but pleasingly on target for the TAB Eureka after some setbacks and two stable changes have prevented him from racing this year.
“He’s a different ball game. He’s the first headline horse I’ve had,” Grima said.
“He’s the sort of horse you dream of getting when you’re a young trainer like me.
“I watched that amazing (Brisbane) Inter Dominion final the other week and thought how I’m a chance of being in those races now I’ve got a horse like Loucasso. That’s so exciting.”
Loucasso had his second “hopple” run earlier this week and is four to six weeks away from a trial.
“So far, so good,” Grima said. “It’s a great result for us that the Eureka has gone back from September to November this year, he probably wouldn’t have made September,” he said.
“But we’ve got time on our side now and we should be able to get a good foundation of work and racing into him by Eureka time.
“There is the NSW Breeders Challenge in October, but there’s no way we will rush him. If he happened to be ready for that, we’d consider it, but the Eureka is the big target.”
PHOTO: Dan Costello
