Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Star pacer Lavra Joe, who was extremely boisterous and difficult to control before he was gelded, is now a demure, quietly natured pacer who was so relaxed that he worried his driver Maddison Brown during the $31,000 Countryman Pace over 2536m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“He is a good horse, but he wasn’t travelling that strongly in the run, and he relaxed a bit too much for my liking,” said Brown. “But around the corner he kicked into that good horse gear.”
Lavra Joe, the $1.40 favourite, dashed straight to the front from the No. 2 barrier and was not extended in covering the final three 400m sections in 28.3sec., 27.8sec. and 28.1sec. He careered away from his rivals in the home straight and won by four lengths from $71 outsider Machnificent, who surged home, out wide after enjoying the perfect trail in the one-out, one-back position.
Seven-year-old Lavra Joe is still reasonably big in condition despite having raced on each of the past eight Friday nights for four wins and two seconds, taking his record to 83 starts for 37 wins, 18 placings and $832,166.
Owner-trainer Ray Jones is hoping Lavra Joe gets a start in the $1,250,000 Nullarbor slot race on April 25, saying: “I still haven’t received an offer from a slot holder, and there’s probably only two spots to be filled.
“He has raced every week for the past eight weeks and maybe he will have a week off and not race next Friday. He is so relaxed that he sleeps on the way up to Gloucester Park (from Greenbushes), and he sleeps on the way back. And half the time he sleeps here.
“He is enjoying a very relaxed life style. At home, sometimes in the mornings he will take off in the paddock and gallop up to a corner before spending most of the day standing under a tree.”
Jones said that he had rejected an approach to buy Lavra Joe early last year. “It came from a local guy, but I told him that he is not for sale.”