KEY POINTS:
John Wheeler used to describe Lycra as a freak. He now says The Pooka is at least as good.
The dashing juvenile proved it when he overcame difficulties to run a hot field off their feet in Saturday's $100,000 Wakefield.
It wasn't even the outside barrier draw or the energy The Pooka had to burn to get across the field and lead that made this a great effort, it was the way he levelled out and galloped low to the ground in a totally relaxed style that told you this is something special.
Wheeler told new rider Mark Du Plessis to ride positively from the wide barrier - told him The Pooka was good enough to burn to the lead from out wide and win.
He won't need to tell Du Plessis that again, the rider is hooked.
"Mark told me he thinks he's a Derby horse," said Wheeler.
You have to be among the very best horses to be able to do what The Pooka did on Saturday against that level of juvenile talent and have the potential to be a top stayer.
Wheeler wrote "cracker" in his sales catalogue when he saw The Pooka in a Rodmor Stud yearling parade this time last year, then completely forgot about the colt because he didn't have a buyer.
"The next time I saw him he was in the sale ring. I still didn't have a buyer, but I put my hand up anyway."
Wheeler admits he knew nothing about the sire, Irish-bred Tobougg.
"Later I asked someone about him and they said the Arabs raced him and tried to make a stayer out of him, but that he was essentially a sprinter."
