FIVE-year-old Badger Lake has taken time to come to hand since joining Mike de Kock’s stable roughly a year ago, but he seems to have settled, finally, and judged on his smooth winning of a MR85 over 2000m turf at the Vaal, Thursday, there will be more wins to come.

Badger Lake won easy, striding out well.

Jockey Robbie Fradd, deputising for Anthony Delpech, summed it up: “Badger Lake travelled well throughout, Mathew de Kock told me to take some cover and I did that. He picked it up nicely and won well.”

Fradd said he couldn’t recall whether he had ridden a winner in the Robert Bloomberg silks before and asked whether he expected a “present”, quipped: “I don’t know, but I hear Mr Bloomberg settles, that’s good!”

Bloomberg owns Badger Lake in partnership with Markus Jooste and Mathew de Kock thanked them for their patience with the son of  Badger’s Drift and Swan Lake. “He’s improving and we hope he goes on with it,” said Mathew.

Badger Lake has won five of sixteen starts and, like last year, holds a Sansui Summer Cup nomination.