Battlefield tip paying off for Lockwood

By Glenn Davis

A tip off from a former workmate of Barry Lockwood led the Eagle Farm co-trainer to buying a tried Sydney galloper named Battlefield two years ago.

Lockwood paid $42,500 at an online auction for the son of Deep Field, who had won once in seven starts for his two previous Sydney trainers Chris Waller and Matthew Vella.

Fast forward to now and Lockwood and co-trainer Emma-Jane Vincent hope to land their biggest win since starting their training partnership last October when Battlefield lines up in the $150,000 King of the Mountain at Toowoomba on Friday.

Battlefield - a Luke Dempsey mount - is coming off a last start second to the Tony Gollan-trained John Rambo in the Gold Jewel at the Gold Coast on March 14.

Battlefield is unbeaten in two starts at Toowoomba and Lockwood is hopeful of continuing his unblemished record.

“He likes Toowoomba and hasn’t been beaten in two starts there,” Lockwood said.

“He drew wide last time in the Gold Jewel, but his run was terrific, so we’ve got no issues with that.

“He’s going well so he should run a super race in Toowoomba.

“I think he’s looking for 1400 metres, but Emma-Jane and I have freshened him up for this.”

Lockwood races Battlefield in partnership with long-time owner Michael Buys along with some of his cousins from Tamworth in New South Wales. 

“Bruce Johnson was my foreman when I trained in Sydney and he rang me one day to say Battlefield was coming up for sale online and that he’d been a good buy and would win a few races in Brisbane,” Lockwood said.

“Bruce and I had worked together for years so I had a good look at Battlefield when he did eventually come up for sale and decided to buy him.

“What I liked about him was he was a nice walker and he was a $522,000 buy at the Inglis Premier sale in 2022.”

Lockwood struck immediate success with Battlefield in his first campaign by winning three of his first four starts and almost sold him to Hong Kong.

“The offer was about 10 times what we paid for him, but it never went ahead,” Lockwood said.

“He had heart arrhythmia when we bought him, but the offer didn’t go any further after the buyer found out Hong Kong doesn’t take horses with a problem like heart arrhythmia.”

Lockwood is unsure whether Battlefield is up to the winter carnival sprints but has The Archer at Rockhampton in his sights.

“He’ll go up for The Archer but I’m not sure if he’s up to the big races in the winter, maybe the second-tier races,” Lockwood said.