Weekend Double for O'Lonhro

The good recent run for emerging stallion O'Lonhro continued over the weekend with the Larneuk Stud resident represented by a double.

And the two wins come from a pair of very promising young horses having only their second starts.

Kept very safe on the back of a strong finishing debut third at Kilmore a few weeks ago, the Geoff Wheeler trained Beau Padrille overcame a tardy start to salute by a soft length at Cranbourne on Friday night.

The win was no shock to Wheeler who has been pleased with his charge's progress since his first start - but he admits to have been "totally surprised" by how well he ran at Kilmore.

"He is one of the laziest, slowest things on the track," he laughed, joking that "I have always called him my big slow horse!"

But there was something about Beau Padrille that made Wheeler persevere - "he is a lovely solid horse but he just doesn't yet have the brains to match the body."

Wheeler has been thrilled by Beau Padrille's success to date, noting that he is only going to improve - "we were not really expecting him to win over the shorter trips as he is being trained for the mile."

Planning to continue Beau Padrille's debut campaign with his liking for rain affected ground, Wheeler is however confident that he will be all the better later on - "he still has plenty of growing to do."

Meanwhile the exciting Lirabird took no notice of a betting drift to record her second impressive victory from as many starts.

Despite having won with authority at her Pakenham debut in late April, the Geni Gillis trained filly was unwanted in the betting - drifting out to big odds.

This was indicative more of the strength of the field than her form, Lirabird tackling some nice up-and-comers - and treating them with contempt!

Getting back and charging home - saluting by 3/4 length despite racing greenly - Lirabird has her trainer excited.

"She is doing a great job, she is a good horse!" she enthused.

"She had a virus since her last run and we had to bring her back a bit in distance. So she had a lot of things against her."

Still immature, Lirabird has always been held in high regard by Gillis who said "she can go on and develop into a 2400m horse."

Jockey Danny Adam was also impressed.

"She is a big raw filly with a heap of improvement in her."

"I thought today would be a bit of a challenge from the outside gate and she didn't have the easiest of runs - but she had plenty left."

Larneuk's Neville Murdoch was delighted by both victories, noting that "we always thought the O'Lonhros would take just that little bit of time to hit their straps - and they are really hitting form now."

Already siring nine winners from his first 24 starters - with only three of his initial group of runners not earning prize money, O'Lonhro has also been represented by a further eight lightly raced place getters.

"Like the progeny of his champion sire Lonhro, O'Lonhro's stock are proving themselves to be tough and talented triers," Murdoch said, adding that O'Lonhro has considerable depth to his pedigree with his dam being a full sister to the grandam of I Am Invincible whose success is such that his fee has risen from $11,000 to $27,500 to $55,000.