CONDITIONING a horse to win after a month’s layoff is common practice in horse racing circles.

When a horse is out of action for six months or longer, and that horse wins on return, that can be deemed as noteworthy. To do so after a break longer than six months is special. But what about coming off a break of close to three years, and winning four in a row? That in any language is unbelievable!

Such is the case with five-year-old Last Lick trained by Gordon Lewis.

Last Lick returned to the races following a 34-month break to defeat rivals by 19 lengths in a four- furlong contest. Last Lick then went on to win three more races on the trot, making it four-from-four.

His latest success came on Sunday, November 20, 2022, when he easily defeated rivals by 5 ½ lengths in a native-bred five-year-old and upwards (non-winners of four) call going 5 ½ furlongs (1,100m).

Bred by Casual Trick out of Little Sister, Last Lick broke behind the early leaders Jon P (Roger Hewitt) and Nina Dorada (Javaniel Patterson) going into the half-mile turn. Last Lick then surrounded rivals approaching the distance and went on to win ahead of Chennai Express (Aaron Chatrie) and Expeditious (Ramon Nepare) in a time of 1:08.1.

“When an animal has talent and they are not feeling any pain, you can get the best out of that talent. The jockey [Chalrick Budhai] had been associated with this horse from three years ago and was the last person to ride Last Lick when he got injured on December 7, 2019.

“He hasn’t had enough wear and tear as most of these other horses here and so it was an easy gallop for him. We have no choice; we have to go to Overnight Allowance now where we are going to meet some decent horses and so we will see if he trains on accordingly. So far, so good with him,” Lewis said.