Wilde said Lester, who raced Constant Force with a group of friends including fellow form analyst Warren Huntly, was central to his success.
“Deane and Warren, they placed the horse beautifully, which was a weight off my shoulders,” he said.
“They’d tell you what races they thought would suit and what riders. It was always a discussion, it was never like, ‘(you have to) do this’, but to be able to get their advice with all their experience and expertise was great.
“That horse, he won good money, he was no champion, but we had some fun and I reckon he was placed really well, which was credit to Deane and Warren.”
Lester would have loved to have tried to plot a path to Saturday’s $175,000 race with French Moon.
He considered him a stayer of promise at the back end of summer last year, when he strung together three wins and a second from four runs, including victory in the Summer Stayers Final (2500m) at The Valley.
But the son of Puissance De Lune, who was also raced by Ryan, lost his way in his first three starts this season.
“We thought he ran really well at Flemington and as soon as he ran well enough there, the next logical option was this race.”
A return to form at his hometown carnival, coupled with back-to-back third placings, prompted Wilde to have a crack at the Banjo Paterson Final (2600m) at Flemington on July 1, with his fifth placing serving as a Flemington Cup audition.
“He was struggling for a bit of form, but he ran quite well at the (Warrnambool) Carnival and was then placed twice and ran quite well but just had small fields and things against him,” Wilde said.
“So, we thought we’d give him a try in a bigger field with a truer tempo and see if he measures up down in the weights and he did.
“We thought he ran really well at Flemington and as soon as he ran well enough there, the next logical option was this race.”
There is a further link to Lester through French Moon’s rider Beau Mertens, son of the late Peter Mertens, who Lester managed for a period of his successful riding career.
Mertens is not the only rider who will sport Ryan’s colours at Flemington on Saturday, with Harry Coffey to don them before taking the sea aboard Normandy Bridge, who will chase a fourth-straight win in the $150,000 VRC Member Clint Jellis Trophy (2000m).