Lisa on Lincoln Hills: ‘This horse can really gallop’

The most fascinating race of the week for trainer Lisa Latta will be Lincoln Hills’ tilt at strong rating 82 company at Awapuni on Friday.

An all-the-way last-start winner in rating 65 company on the course, Lincoln Hills steps up significantly in class in the sixth race.

And while he is a two-race winner taking on rivals who have won up to eight races, Latta doesn’t think he’ll be disgraced.

“This horse can really gallop, he works like an open class handicapper.

“And he gets a bit of a weight allowance on Friday.’’

Lincoln Hills drops 4kg on the 58kg he carried on March 1 while the majority of his rivals are carrying 58.5kg or more.

“He beat some pretty nice ones last week and his work has been very good since.”

On Tuesday morning Lincoln Hills was teamed with well performed stablemate Father Lenihan, clocking 52.3 for 800 metres and 39.7 for the last 600.

“I’m really interested to see how he goes. If he could run in the first four I’d be happy. Eventually I think he’ll be up to these horses.’’

Latta has given Lincoln Hills a month in between runs as he’s been quite soft until now, and also finickity about what track conditions he likes.

The Awapuni track was rated a dead 5 today, which would suit him perfectly.

Top jockey Chris Johnson again takes the ride on the All Too Hard four-year-old who is nicely spotted in gate six.