Tonto rides high at Ascot
Two-year-old Tonto underlined his promise with a huge win in the Westspeed Nursery (1600m) at Ascot today.
Starting a solid $3.50 favourite, Tonto settled fourth on the fence for jockey Jason Whiting before securing a dream run on straightening.
Whiting angled Tonto off the fence behind pacesetter Prentice ($5), taking the position of Crown Choice who was losing ground.
Tonto loomed up to Prentice at the top of the straight and sprinted clear, putting a gap on his rivals to score by 4¾ lengths.
Kamballie ($4.50) ran on for second and Prentice held third.
An impressive maiden winner at Pinjarra before the Ascot triumph, Tonto will be spelled and set for the WA Guineas (1600m) in November.
‘It was a very good ride by Jason,” co-trainer Dion Luciani said.
“He’s a genuine miler and that probably exaggerated the winning margin.
“But it was still great to see him run away from them.
“He’ll definitely go out now and come back for a Guineas campaign and he could be a derby type.”
Tonto, by Onemorenomore, is from the family of the Luciani-trained Campobello, Lethal Jones and Friday’s Girl.
“Lethal Jones was a bleeder and suffered from laminitis, Friday’s Girl had bad knees and Campobello was broken in the wind,” Dion Luciani said.
“Hopefully we can keep this bloke together because they can run.”
Tonto was Lou and Dion Luciani’s second two-year-old winner this week.
Sass ‘N’ Glam won on debut for the training partnership at Ascot on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Peck successfully backed up from his Albany Cup (2100m) win last Sunday to claim the Diggers’ Cup (1800m).
The former Darley stayer, trained by Adam Durrant, swooped late to beat Operational by a short neck.
Durrant is eyeing off Kalgoorlie features later this year with Peck, who cost $27,000 at a Darley dispersal sale.
“He’s probably been a little bit of a non-winner in the past,” Durrant said.
“It’s nice to see him getting over the top of them and finding the line.
“The six days between runs and back to 1800 wasn’t in his favour.
“He’s the soundest he’s been for a long time and now we’ve got two weeks until a 2100m race at Belmont.
“Hopefully we’ll knock that race over and get him ready for the Kalgoorlie round.”
