Melbourne, October 2 – The rewards have been a long time coming for Exceed and Excel four year-old Lights On, but trainer Dale Sutton is confident the Woodside Park owned galloper is now back on track following an impressive win at Geelong last Thursday.
A $500,000 purchase from the 2007 Yarraman Park Magic Millions draft, Lights On is the second foal of stakes-winning Fuji Kiseki (Jpn) mare Flashed.
Lights On has always shown Sutton enormous talent, but illness and the equine influenza outbreak have restricted him to only eight starts.
“We had a lot of time for him as a young horse when he won one of the early 2YO trials in October 2007, but picked up a virus than nearly killed him,” Sutton said. “He spent nearly a year recovering, and also, like a lot of our horses, he was stranded in Queensland because of restrictions on movements during the EI outbreak.”
Lights On, who has also had his preparation restricted because of wet tracks, appreciated the dead ground at Ballarat and cruised home in the Ratings 72 1200metre Showcase after crossing to lead from barrier 11.
“He’s super quick and his time was nearly a second quicker than the other 1200m race on the program,” Sutton said. “He deserves a crack at a race in town very soon.”
Lights On has been nominated for another Showcase race (1000m) at Bendigo on Thursday.