Liberty Blue has been zig-zagging between Alice Springs and South Australia for the past 18 months.
The eight-year-old gelding arrived in the Northern Territory for his third sojourn around the time the financial year drew to an end, and two seconds and a third took his record to 11 appearances at Pioneer Park – which included finishing second on five other occasions – without cracking it for a win.
That's until the son of Statue Of Liberty finally saluted in the Red Centre against Class 2 opposition over 1100m on August 20.
Six days later, Liberty Blue made it back-to-back wins with victory in the AU$40,000 Ladbrokes Winter Series Final (1200m) at 0-66 class level at the annual Truckies Day meeting.
Introduced for the first time by Thoroughbred Racing Northern Territory, the Ladbrokes Winter Series comprised of 10 $20,000 heats during seven meetings hosted by the Alice Springs Turf Club from May 29 to August 6.
There was originally going to be just seven heats, but such was the popularity of the concept that three heats were divided with races held over 1100m and 1200m at either a 0-64, 0-58, 0-54 or Class 2 level.
Horses qualified for the final based on a points system.
The winner of each heat secured five points with three points on offer for third and two points on offer for third, while every unplaced runner picked up one point.
In the end, nine starters lined up in the final last Friday with Liberty Blue securing victory for trainer Lisa Whittle, a dominant figure in the Red Centre for a number of years who claimed the 2021/22 Alice Springs trainers' premiership.
Darwin-based jockey Sonja Wiseman, who missed the start of the 2021/22 season because of injury, not only partnered Liberty Blue two Saturdays ago, but also celebrated victory on the horse in the biggest race in the NT this season following the $200,000 Darwin Cup (2050m) on August 1.
Liberty Blue qualified for the Winter Series Final after finishing second behind the Greg Connor-trained Intercontinental over 1100m (0-54) on July 17 with Jade Hampson in the saddle and second behind the Kevin Lamprecht-trained Travanti over 1200m (0-54) on August 6 with Wiseman as the pilot.
Between each of those two races Liberty Blue (Hampson) finished third behind stablemate Ananagram (Wiseman), who finished at the tail of the field in the Winter Series Final, over 1000m (0-58) on July 24.
After debuting in a 1050m maiden at Morphettville as a four-year-old in January 2019 where he finished eighth, Liberty Blue featured in 47 other races for Strathalbyn trainer Scott Whittle – the brother of Lisa.
The horse finally won its first race at the 15th attempt with victory in an 1100m maiden at Port Augusta in June 2020 and it wasn't until another nine months later that Liberty Blue debuted in Alice Springs, where he finished second in his first three races before a fifth on Anzac Day.
It was then back to South Australia, where he continued to race at various provincial locations before making it a second career win two months later in June back at Port Augusta over 1100m (0-50).
A second trip north to Alice Springs followed 10 months later and Liberty Blue kicked things off with a second over 1100m (0-58) on April 2 and a fourth over 1100m (0-62) before producing his worst performance on the Pioneer Park dirt with a sixth over 1100m (0-58).
On Alice Springs Cup Day (May 1), he bounced back to finish second in the Red Centre for a fifth time when the Lisa Whittle-trained Harpuna got the cash over 1000m (0-58) by half a length.
Heading back home again to SA, the gelding had two starts in May and a further two starts in June with his best result a third over 1050m (0-54) at Balaklava.
Scott Whittle sent Liberty Blue back to his sister in Central Australia and, after boasting a record of 48: 2-13-6, the horse finally put it altogether in the Alice.
On Friday, Liberty Blue carried 54kg and jumped from barrier one in a race that featured six last-start winners – Intercontinental (Jessie Philpot), Travanti (Ianish Luximon), and Colhoun (Casey Hunter), Sedona (Adam Nicholls) and Bartolini (Wayne Davis), all three of whom local trainer Jess Gleeson had inherited from Darwin trainer Phil Cole.
As usual, Intercontinental – also backing up from a win on the previous Saturday – assumed the early lead, with Liberty Blue not far away on the fence and Bartolini sitting outside the other two front runners.
There was doubt as to whether or not Liberty Blue would back up after winning on the Saturday, but with 700m to go he was in good shape as Intercontinental began to wane and Sedona – lumping 60.5kg – started to make ground along the trails.
Once turning for home it was anyone's race and with 200m to go little separated Liberty Blue, Sedona (rails) and Bartolini (outside) before the Whittle family's galloper edged away to seal victory by a length and a half from Bartolini (58.5kg) and Sedona with Travanti two and a half lengths away in fourth place.
“He's slowly been putting it together – he's very consistent,” Wiseman said.
“I think he's run something like 15 seconds – he didn't know how to win.
“Lisa changed it up and put some blinkers on him, it just seemed to make all the difference.
“He had blinkers on a while ago, but not in any of his recent starts for Lisa.
“He just seems to be that little bit more switched on now and wants to win rather than run second, which is nice.
“My biggest query was still whether the win the previous Saturday was going to be enough for him to switch on and figure out that he's got to win a race.
“I kind of thought he might throw it away and do something silly or not try, and wait for them to catch up.
“Yeah, the backup is always a bit of a worry – he had already had four starts in six weeks.
“He's a big horse, he's quite strong – so it doesn't surprise me that he could handle it.”
Wiseman had the luxury of starting from the inside gate and clearly had a plan in mind, but she had to be on her toes as most of her rivals were in pretty good form.
“Ideally, I would have liked to sit just behind the pace, but he's a bit of a thinker and once he gets kind of pulling you're better off just letting him travel and keep him happy,” she said.
“I had a nice rails run inside Intercontinental, so it just made it quite nice to just travel there.
“I tried to let Jessie's horse stay that head in front of me for a little bit there, but he was just too good and Intercontinental started to drop off.
“Bartolini was coming around the outside – I just took the move with it and followed it the whole way up the straight.
“As soon as Wayneo (Wayne Davis) started going on my outside I kind of just started travelling up with him.
“I did my best to keep as straight as I could and guide my horse up the straight, and keep him balanced – and once we got in front of Bartolini he fought on really solid.
“Liberty Blue is a tricky horse and he wants to kind of wait around for everyone, so you're better off to just pick something up and go with it.
“I always knew he would run a good race.
“He went around as one of the bottom weights as well (54kg), so he was pretty lucky and fortunate in that sense.
“He still tried to get beat – he hung out on me and wanted to lay all over Bartolini until Sedona come up the inside – then he straightened out again.
“I never even gave him a hit with the whip or anything.
“I was very happy with him.”
According to Wiseman, Lisa Whittle was absolutely “rapt” with the win.
“Lisa has a lot of time for him and I think him coming out and winning for her was a thrill because he was a hard horse to work out,” she said.
“She just couldn't quite get him to finish off his races.
“The last two races she's just sort of figured out what works for him and he's coming out and winning, which is great.”
Wiseman then paused before laughing.
“He almost feels like he wants to be friends with all the horses in the race,” she added.
“He just wants to be a really nice horse.”