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Wild Wilbur to wind up at Eagle Farm

Tuesday 9 February 2010
By Glenn Davis

Trainer Michael Lakey is hoping Stathi Katsidis can take some of the spotlight off Chris Munce's homecoming when he partners Wild Wilbur in the Race-Tech Australia Handicap at Eagle Farm.

Munce has relocated back to Brisbane after riding successfully in Sydney for the past 15 years and has six rides at Wednesday's meeting.

Munce, the winner of 40 Group One races including the 1998 Melbourne Cup on Jezabeel, will partner the Peter Sexton-trained Diasco when the five-year-old mare clashes with Wild Wilbur over 1000m.

Lakey has a good opinion of Wild Wilbur, who has won three of his 10 starts, but was forced to give the gelding a month off after he was kicked in the chest by another horse following his last-start second at Doomben on January 2.

"He got kicked in the chest a couple of weeks ago and I had to wait for the bruising to come out," Lakey said.

Wild Wilbur was named after Lakey's five-year-old son, Wilbur Lakey, and is part-owned by the trainer's wife Janelle and Bill Braden who paid just $4,000 for him at the Sydney Easter sales as a yearling.

Katsidis has a perfect record from two rides on the son of Desert Glance, winning on him at Ipswich and Caloundra last August.

"Stathi has a bit of time for Wild Wilbur and I think he'll be hard to beat tomorrow," Lakey said.

"I've got a good opinion of this horse and if he keeps racing well I may take him to Rockhampton for the Newmarket in the winter.

"He hasn't gone over 1200 metres yet but I think he can get to 1400 metres."

Wild Wilbur's conformation defies his record of being unplaced just twice in his career.

"If you saw the horse at the time we bought him you'd understand why he went for only $4,000," Lakey said.

"He's a beautiful horse but he's got a very ordinary conformation in front.

"His front legs were very offset and it took ages to get him to the track."

Lakey's problems with Wild Wilbur were compounded after the gelding's debut as a three-year-old when he finished fifth in a maiden at Esk in May 2008.

"A couple of weeks after the Esk race he suddenly went lame and we found later he had a broken splint bone but it was in one of his hind legs," Lakey said.

"He had a minor operation to fix it and spent a few months out recovering."

Wild Wilbur didn't race again for 10 months but his return was a triumph in a maiden at Ipswich last March.