IT took her 17 starts to shed her maiden status, but now Leah Shannon has two victories from her three most recent runs and she's only getting better.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The three-year-old filly is one trainer Peter Bullock has an opinion of and her run at the Bathurst Paceway on Friday night demonstrated why.
She got away well from barrier five, put in some work to find the front, pinched a breather through the second quarter, pulled clear at the mile marker then held off her rivals to win the Pet Rock @ Trump Bloodstock 3YO Pace (1,730 metres).
"She's probably one horse we've got a bit of an opinion of," Bullock said.
"She's probably still a little bit green, but she just keeps getting better and better, so hopefully she can go on and win quite a few races."
It was in Cowra on June 13 that Leah Shannon posted her first win for Team Bullock, Travis Bullock steering her to an all-the-way win from barrier two.
On Friday night Travis Bullock was in the gig again and keen to find the front with the $2.20 chance.
While Soho Osaka was able to punch through from barrier three to lead in the opening metres, out wider Leah Shannon kept coming and was soon able to cross.
That early speed battle saw the first quarter covered in 29.7 seconds, but once in front Bullock was able to control the tempo and backed the speed off through a 31.6 second split.
She led by a length into the back straight and that pushed out to around 10m before the challenges started to come from behind.
But Leah Shannon was good enough to hold on, beating home a fast-finishing Ripponlea ($8) by 1.8m. She clocked a career best 1:58.6 winning mile rate in doing so.
"We thought she'd lead out, so that's probably the plan, but I Ieave it up to him [Travis] really," the trainer said.
"She went good, she fought on real well. She's won both her races now leading, but I think she'll be better with cover in the future when she goes up in grade, she can follow speed real well."
The effort took the Heston Blue Chip x Zenitra Shannon filly's record this season to a pair of wins, four seconds and a third from 11 starts.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
