A return to the scene of his greatest win has worked wonders for He's A Doozy, who burst back into form with victory in Saturday's Autumn Cup (1600m) at Trentham.
The Wellington track has always brought the very best out of the Zacinto gelding, whose 10 previous visits to Trentham had produced five wins including last season's Group 1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) and Group 3 Thompson Handicap (1600m).
But the current season had been a fruitless one for the six-year-old, finishing no closer than fourth in his six appearances before Saturday's $50,000 open handicap. That all changed at Trentham.
He's A Doozy was assigned a testing 62kg topweight, but dropped to 59kg with apprentice jockey Ace Lawson-Carroll's 3kg claim. He jumped awkwardly and settled at the rear of the seven-horse field in the early stages of the race, then slid forward into fifth just before the end of the back straight.
The leader Marroni rolled off the fence at the home turn and Lawson-Carroll seized his opportunity, driving through the inside and hitting the lead with 200m remaining. Duncan Creek and Sumi gave their all to try to run him down, but He's A Doozy kept kicking and held on gamely to win by a short head.
Trainer Lisa Latta paid $70,000 to buy He's A Doozy as a yearling at Karaka in 2019. His 30-start career has now produced eight wins, four placings and $505,425 in stakes.
“He's a good horse and it's a real relief to see him back in winning form today,” Latta said. “He loves it around Trentham, he was given a good ride and won the race really nicely
“There's not a lot of options around for a horse like him at this time of year, but we might look at the Awapuni Gold Cup (Group 2, 2100m), which is at Trentham this year (on April 6). We'll probably look to give him a trial in between to keep him up to the mark.”
He's A Doozy was the third winner on the Trentham card for Lawson-Carroll and the second for Latta. That trainer-jockey combination also teamed up to win with highly talented three-year-old Platinum Attack, who has now won all of his last three races in succession.
“He's a very promising horse and is just doing everything on raw ability at the moment,” Latta said. “He hit the front a long way out today, so it was a good, tough effort to keep going and get the win.”