National Jockey's Premiership leader Kozzi Asano continued a white-hot run of form when he guided Lightning Jack to an upset victory in Saturday's Gore Guineas (1335m).
Asano, who won the last five races on the card at the New Plymouth meeting on Friday, carried on the winning roll by taking out the first three events at Gore to make it eight wins in succession. That sequence was ended when he was out of the money in race five although he bounced straight back to win race six on former northerner Rocanto.
Despite that form punters largely ignored the winning chances of the Kelvin and Aimee Tyler-trained Lightning Jack in the day's feature event as the Per Incanto 3-year-old was sent out as a $10 chance behind race favourite Miss Federer.
Rated highly enough by his connections to tackle the Group 1 Two Thousand Guineas (1600m) as a maiden, Lightning Jack's confidence was high after securing his first career success at his most recent start. Given time to find his feet by Asano, Lightning Jack swept into contention on the home turn before setting out after Live Drama who had shot clear at that point. Lightning Jack put in a huge lunge that carried him to the narrowest of victories.
- NZ Racing Desk
