Helmaz To Good

Helmaz fought right to the finish today at Sandown Racecourse to knock up his second career win for trainer Mark Kavanagh.

Very unlucky last start at Flemington Racecourse, Helmaz more than deserved the win today. His jockey Lachlan King, who also rode him last start, was quietly confident coming into todays race.

“He was incredibly unlucky last start, he ran into a wall of horses and got a bad check, but he was able to pick himself up and attack the line, so I was quietly confident coming here today,” said Lachlan.

“The race didn’t really go to plan, he is quite a keen horse, we lobbed three wide and I just tried to keep him happy. He towed me to the front, and he was tough to hold on, a really good win.”

King was happy to repay the owners and thanked them for keeping him on. “In a situation where the owners could have taken me off and put a senior (jockey) on, who still would have got the job done. I’m thankful they stuck by me.”

Mark was happy where Lachlan had Helmaz in the running and praised the four-year-old son of Helmet for hanging on, despite being out in front early.

“He has been unlucky a few times. He seems to be a horse that when on the inside can be stuck for runs and seems to find a bit of bad luck. But today Lachlan had him in a position where he wasn’t going to find any back luck. He just got left in front a little early but to his credit he hung on”, said Mark.

Helmaz is likely to have a couple more starts before a nice break with the aim to come back even better this time (Winter) next year.

“He certainly has ability; he will continue to go through his grades. I don’t know how deep into the Spring he will get, the next couple of weeks will probably pull him up. But whilst they have these rating races on Sundays and the odd one on a Saturday he will be around, then he’ll probably go out for a spell. He’ll certainly be handy next winter.”