Boho Miss breakthrough continues surge of momentum for Lake

The six-year-old mare, nicely ridden by Rhys McLeod, snapped a streak of 740 days between victories, with a strong finishing benchmark 58 win over 1400m.

It continued a strong surge of momentum for the young trainer, who notched up his fourth career victory.

Three of those wins have come in the last three weeks, starting with the debutante The Cast Off at Hanging Rock on Australia Day and continuing with Chalice Well at Kyneton on February 3.

Formerly trained at Kyneton by Mick Sell, Boho Miss had been placed in three of her previous four starts for his new trainer, including her last two starts at Nhill on Boxing Day and Benalla last month.

Lake admitted the win had been a long time coming, and acknowledged that the cancellation of Tuesday's meeting at Kyneton after four races due to storm activity had proved a stroke of fortune.

"The form guide says she got beat at Nhill first-up, but she was a little bit unlucky that day. I thought she should have won," he said.

"The other day (at Benalla) she was three-deep, faced the breeze and did it tough, but was still strong on the line.

"I actually had her in at Kyneton, but I got to the races and they called them off.

"Anyway, all things happen for a reason, don't they?"

Lake thanked the mare's ownership for taking a chance on him after Boho Miss had notched up two wins, four placings and a trio of fourths for the Sell stable.

"I've got to thank the Catoggio boys for sending her my way and also my staff, especially Dave (Van Ryn) who straps her," he said.

"She is a very, very hormonal mare and she's very tricky at home.

"She doesn't get much TLC. She gets worked and hosed and she gets left alone for the rest of the day. That's what she likes.

"We've worked her out and she might be able to step in trip now."

Lake, who has roughly 20 horses in work at Bendigo, was hopeful Boho Miss could continue to work through her grades, with aspirations of eventually taking the daughter of Redente and Kicha to town.

"It's maybe a little bit ambitious, (but) I'd like to think she'd get to midweek grade in the winter," he said.

"She likes wet tracks; she appreciates some give out of the ground.

"I thought the track was quite firm (on Wednesday), so she's probably done a really good job.

"We'll just keep placing her.

"I want to say it's great to have Rhys ride a winner for me. Obviously we go back a long way. I worked closely with him when we worked out of Melbourne.

"He's just one of the good guys of racing."

With three wins with three individual horses and a placing from only nine runners this calendar year, Lake admitted he was rapt with how his stable was coming together.

"That's our third winner in a matter of weeks and we've got a few more bullets to fire coming into yearling sales time," he said.

"It's the right time to be in form and hopefully everyone can jump on the (Lake Racing) website and sign up and be part of a winning team.

"I love training and I've only just started. Hopefully we can be in for a long and successful career."

Lake will be aiming to continue the momentum with impressive Kyneton winner Chalice Well stepping up to city grade at Moonee Valley on Friday night.

The four-year-old mare will contest a fillies and mares benchmark 70, a heat of the Ladbrokes 55 Second Challenge (955m).

She will be ridden by 2020 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jye McNeil and is an $8 chance in the early TAB market.

After partnering Boho Miss to victory on Wednesday, McLeod tipped a nice future for both mare and trainer.

"I've known Toby for a long time - he's obviously on his own now as a young trainer. I think he's going to be one to follow," he said.

"He's got her racing really well at the moment. It was a perfect race for her today.

"We had a lovely run and (she) dug in deep pretty nicely late."