Lennie's Choice confirms need for speed

Wednesday 27 March 2013, 5:45pm

Lennie's Choice has been pigeon-holed as a short-course specialist but trainer Kelly Schweida isn't complaining.

Instead of taking Lennie's Choice out of his comfort zone in races longer than 1000m, Schweida has purposely kept the gelding to the shorter sprint trips.

That formula saw Lennie's Choice record his fourth win from only six starts in the Drumbeats @ Lyndhurst Handicap (1010m).

"He's got such good gate speed he's perfectly suited to these sort of races and I like winning them," Schweida said.

"The reason I'm keeping him to the short races is because he's such a clean-winded horse that I don't have to do any work with him between races."

Schweida rated Lennie's Choice among his best two-year-olds last season until he developed knee problems in his near foreleg which required a lengthy spell.

"I thought he was going to be a really good two-year-old when he won a jump-out by five lengths," Schweida said.

"He was shin sore after that so I put him out and when I brought him back he was only in work for two weeks and his knee blew up.

"I got it X-rayed which showed he had a chip. I nearly cried."

Schweida plans to give Lennie's Choice a short break from racing to enable him to strengthen up.

"He's only knee high to a grasshopper and I'll probably give him a little freshen up on the water walker to try and put a bit of beef on him," he said.

Jockey Michael Cahill said Lennie's Choice had the race safely in his keeping when he was able to have a mid-race breather.

"From the 800 metres to the home turn I was able to give him a rest and when I asked him to go again at the top of the straight he gave a good kick and the others had their chance to beat him," Cahill said.

– AAP

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