Talented galloper Lakota Fire gelded and ready to step up at Flemington

Lakota Fire wins at The Valley.

A new version of a talented sprinter will take on older rivals in the last race of Saturday’s Flemington meeting.

Lakota Fire will resume as a gelding for local trainers Mark and Levi Kavanagh in the VRC Life Member Anthony Yencken Sprint (1100m) after winning two of four runs as an entire.

The three-year-old was competitive against subsequent Group 3 winner Archo Nacho on debut at Werribee before posting two straight wins, the second of which was an impressive success at The Valley.

However, Levi Kavanagh said connections decided to geld the three-year-old after he struggled in the Listed Poseidon Stakes at Flemington last September.

• Punters’ best bets four-leg multi paying $69 [Saturday, January 20]

“He’s certainly a horse that has got quite a good record and showed us a lot last time in,” he said.

“He just got a bit heated as a colt at Flemington and this is his first prep with the ultimate gear change. Hoping he can step up and keep going and build on his last prep.”

Lakota Fire has had the customary two jumpouts leading up to his return, running third in the first on January 5 before beating only one runner home in the second at Werribee a week later.

Kavanagh suggested punters ignore Lakota Fire’s latest outing.

“We didn’t realise it was going to be as heavy as it was and he doesn’t really go in that ground so we just looked after him a bit,” Kavanagh said.

“The trial before that was quite good, quite sharp.”

The lack of suitable options in three-year-old company has forced the Kavanagh stable to test Lakota Fire against other horses.

Kavanagh said racing against more seasoned horses would give connections the opportunity to assess autumn options later in Lakota Fire’s preparation.

“We would have loved it to be a three-year-old race but there’s still not many three-year-old Benchmark 70s around at the moment,” Kavanagh said.

“He’ll probably run in a couple of open class races in the next few weeks then we’ll see where he’ll get to in the autumn.”