Star turns by up-and-coming 3yr-olds were the feature of yesterday’s Wyndham harness meeting.
Seven of the 11 races were won by the 3yr-olds, many of whom took a step closer to qualifying for the Southland Oaks and Southern Supremacy Stakes finals later this season.
One of those horses is the Alister Black-trained Lawrence who boomed to win in a fast 2.56.4 time for 2400m on a slightly rain-affected track.
The group 2 Southern Supremacy Final is one of the goals Black has for Lawrence.
"He is going to have to take another step to keep up with Sherrif and Aloka and Ana Malik," Black said.
"We will just try and place him if we can without getting too high in the ratings.
"The ratings system is a bit tough on 3yr-olds in my opinion, but that is life."
The way Lawrence has improved with time suggests he has the potential to become even better with time.
"He was a wee bit slow-maturing, if anything. He was not a natural 2yr-old but he was good enough to qualify," Black said.
"We gave him three months off and he has been pretty good this time in, to be fair."
The Andrew Stuart-trained Sociable gave little-known sire Buy Kiwi Made the perfect start to his stud career by winning.
Real Social was the first starter the son of the Presidential Ball half-brother to former New Zealand mile record holder Kiwi Ingenuity had at the races.
Three-year-old pacers Henry Hubert, Iwanadancewitsumbody and Duke Of Wellington also won.
Majestic Connies got his 3yr-old season back on track with a strong win yesterday’s trotter’s graduation final.
The horse botched the start and took no part in his season’s debut on the same track last month.
The Mark Jones-trained 3yr-old Majestic Lavros posted his first win, in the opening trot.
