Lenny Leads Gatt's Gold Grab

MARK Gatt is hoping a change in training routine will keep paying dividends when Ritza Lenny continues his sensational return from a serious toe injury in Saturday night's heats of the Group 2 Ladbrokes Cyril Rowe Gold Cup at Bulli.

Gatt is certainly no stranger to feature race success at Bulli, having celebrated Group glory with Last Man Out, Ritza Ryder and Gradence, and he's optimistic about continuing the trend when Ritza Lenny lines up in the heats of the $40,000 to-the-winner Gold Cup.

Ritza Lenny, a June '14 son of Barcia Bale and Lagoon Lowanna, was a finalist in last year's Gold Cup, where he started favourite at just his ninth start but finished sixth to Black Bear Lee, although he was only beaten three lengths.

After winning at Wentworth Park on November 30, Ritza Lenny was sidelined for two months with a toe injury that required surgery, but he's been absolutely airborne in two starts back, with Gatt revealing a change in training regime has been the catalyst for flying victories at Maitland and Bulli.

Ritza Lenny made a stunning comeback when clocking a blistering 24.76 at Maitland, just .02 outside the 450m track record, before enhancing his already impressive Bulli 472m credentials last Saturday.

Starting at $1.50 from box one, Ritza Lenny began well to head off Jason Mackay's Kong and he opened up a handy break turning for home before holding Kong at bay, scoring by half a length in a sizzling 26.08.

It was his fourth win from six starts at Bulli and just .06 outside his 26.02 personal best, clocked twelve months ago at just his third start, with Mark Gatt confident he can continue his impressive return to the track when he exits box three in the second of Saturday's five Cup heats.

"Ritza Lenny's going enormous," Gatt offered.

"He had a toe injury that we had to operate on and since he's come back I've been training him a bit differently. I've kept all his work explosive to get a bit more speed in him and keep him a bit closer to the front.

"He's been showing a bit more speed touchwood and hopefully that'll be the case again on Saturday night.

"I was really pleased with his run last Saturday because it was the first time he's been past 450m in two and a half months.

"Because of the way I'm training him now he's probably only doing a quarter of the work he used to do at home so he needs racing to strengthen up and that's why I ran him last Saturday to get him ready for the heats. He won't go any better early this week but he will hit the line better.

"It looks a nice sort of a heat. The only concern is that the dog on his inside, La Grand Logie, has got pace and moves up the track, but if he can't handle that he doesn't deserve to make the final.

"He was only nineteen months old when he made the Gold Cup Final last year but he's got a lot more experience now."

Gatt will also have two other heat contenders in Victorian recruit Your Shout Punk (heat 3, box 4), runner-up in the Group 3 Devonport Cup last month, and Takedown (heat 5, box 2).

Two other Gold Cup aspirants with impressive Tasmanian credentials are Victorian Zipping Bruiser (heat 2, box 4), winner of the Group 1 Hobart Thousand in December, and beaten Hobart Thousand favourite El Grand Amigo (heat 1, box 1).