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By Ray Hickson

Cameron Crockett is a very hands on trainer and he knew something wasn’t quite right with Leovanni when she returned to work for her second preparation with him.

He’d spent $40,000 to buy the mare on Inglis Digital but in her first two starts she was being hesitant at the jump in country maidens, costing her any chance, and he wondered if he’d done the right thing.

Cut to present day and Leovanni heads to Randwick on Saturday looking for four straight wins, stepping out of Highway grade, in the MM Electrical Handicap (1600m).

Cameron Crockett with Leovanni (Pic: Bradley Photos).

If only horses could talk. It was discovered that Leovanni was feeling her back and a decision by Crockett’s vet Jess Sheppard to give the mare an injection in her sacroiliac joint seemingly changed everything, and the rest is history.

“Within three weeks she was a different horse, she still had her tendencies to go a bit hard but she was much happier in herself,’’ Crockett said.

“I’ve been taken back mostly by how good she is.

“I knew if I got her right we were going to see her win races, but you couldn’t fathom her turning around and winning three in four weeks and two Highways.”

The five-year-old has been part of a real purple patch for the Scone trainer who has prepared 10 winners from his last 13 runners.

Crockett says Leovanni is a tough mare, the kind of mare his dad Max would throw him on when he was learning to ride.

She has her quirks at home on the track and clearly she’s feeling well physically and mentally because Crockett says all Leovanni is telling him is she’s ready to go again.

“She is a very hard horse to ride,’’ he said.

“I grew up with horses like her, these are the sort of horses I learned to ride on. Dad used to get them all the time.

“We’ve got her in a good routine when she goes off to the track. I canter her one lap which is very tricky, I don’t think I’d be able to canter her two because she’d be off and gone in the second one.

“I’m also lucky I have a good trackrider.

“You can’t overthink it, we’ve just let her do it. Even the quick back ups, you say she's raced three times in four weeks but the advantage is you don’t have to do anything in between.

“She is very tough so she is a horse you can do this with.”

The task for Leovanni, $9 with TAB on Thursday, is no doubt a tougher one than her Tamworth maiden and two Highway wins but Crockett said another lesson he’s learned, this one from Tracey Bartley, is not to be afraid to give a horse a challenge especially when they’re down in the weights.

She’ll drop to 52.5kg and while coming back from 1800m to the mile she’s shown in her wins that she can come back under the jockey and settle or be made some use of on the speed, as she did last start at Randwick.

“If they’ve got the ability you throw them in the deep end,’’ he said.

“She was very seasoned and very low grade and that was in her corner.

“The biggest trump card is she’s got 52.5kg. When you get down below the minimum I think that’s when you get a real advantage.

“Races with not a lot of pressure bring a lot of good horses undone. She was out the back over racing and not comfortable but she found her rhythm with more pressure in a race.

“She’s 1800m back to 1600m but she’s going to Saturday grade, where there should be some pressure, with less weight.”

Kirby Handicap winner Durova is another case of a horse that Crockett has worked out how to get the best out of and he’s quietly confident her third shot at city grade for him will be a lot more successful than the previous attempts.

She’s won seven out of her nine starts for Crockett, those two unplaced runs coming in city grade, and comes into the Ranvet Handicap (1000m) on fresh legs.

“She’d had a lot of starts when I took her to Randwick, she didn’t run too bad but I think she’d had enough,’’ he said.

Leovanni wins at Randwick on July 25

“Her other failure was at Scone and now I look back on it the two times I’ve taken her to metropolitan grade she was over the top. You can make a lot of excuses for the two times she’s missed for me.

“At Grafton I was very confident, I knew I had her right. And I think she’s better.

“When I cantered her on Wednesday morning I thought it was the best she’s been so I’d be silly not to have a crack in town early in the prep before the better horses come back.”

Prior to her Kirby win, Crockett described Durova as “rocks or diamonds” which referenced the fact she’s either won or finished unplaced. In hindsight he says that’s an unfair assessment, but he also said he’d be “very shocked if she was throwing up one of the rocks” this time.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting