Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr admires Never Ending’s great ability and wonderful potential, and he has opted to drive him in preference to the brilliant Valedictorian in the $100,000 Hoist Torque Australia Pearl Classic for two-year-old colts and geldings at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“It was a touch and go call to choose Never Ending, and it was purely the barrier which influenced my decision,” he said.
Never Ending will start from the No. 3 barrier on the front line in the 2130m group 1 classic, with his stablemate Valedictorian at No. 5.
Hall has driven Valedictorian at his six starts for four wins and a second placing, and he has handled Never Ending in his three starts for three highly impressive victories. Valedictorian will be driven this week by Dylan Egerton-Green.
Never Ending, Valedictorian and Rolling Fire were successful in the three qualifying heats on Tuesday of last week when all three pacers were driven by Hall for Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice, who has sound prospects of equalling Capel trainer Aiden De Campo’s outstanding performance of preparing the three placegetters in last year’s Pearl Classic when The Miki Taker (driven by Egerton-Green) beat Floewriter and Rock On Top.
Hall is seeking to win the Pearl for the fourth time, following victories with Itsallabout Nicole (2009), Go West U Terror (2010) and Swagga (2013). He has plenty of respect for the opposition on Friday night, particularly Valedictorian.
“Valedictorian will be hard to beat,” he said. “His performance in the heat surprised me a lot, and he should be on the way up, as should Never Ending. Valedictorian is a better racehorse than Never Ending; he is more professional and choosing Never Ending was simply because of the better barrier.”
Rolling Fire, who finished strongly to win his qualifying heat, is favourably drawn on the inside of the back line and will be driven by Cody Wallrodt.
The Ryan Bell-trained Lucapelo will be driven by Kyle Symington from the prized No. 1 barrier. He possesses excellent gate speed and has sound prospects of setting the pace, with Hall saying that he would work out his tactics as the race unfolded.
“I’ll come out, but I won’t be blasting,” said Hall. “I’ll see what’s going on inside of me. Never Ending is pretty versatile, so there will be plenty of options.”
Blythewood trainer Kim Prentice, fresh from driving his one thousandth winner (Sweet Vivienne at Pinjarra on Monday), is hoping that drawing barrier No. 2 with the speedy Crowd Control will be a good omen.
Prentice has won the Pearl as a trainer-driver once, when Your Call Lombo started from barrier two and set the pace and beat Spanna and Winforus in 2002.
Crowd Control has considerable ability and has had five starts for two wins, two seconds and a third placing. He set a brisk pace when second to Valedictorian in a heat last week. Prentice also trains Soho Firestone, who will be driven by Mitch Miller from barrier four. Soho Firestone led when second to Never Ending in a heat.
De Campo has two runners in Friday night’s classic, Dourado (barrier six) and Magnus Victor (barrier two on the back line), but he doubts whether they will be able to emulate the performances of his trifecta runners of last year.
“Unfortunately, they are not of the quality of last year,” he said. “They are probably a rung below the real good ones this year and they will need luck.” He will drive Dourado (who finished solidly when second to Rolling Fire in a heat) and Chris Lewis will handle Magnus Victor, who finished fourth behind Never Ending in a heat.
Lewis has won the Pearl five times, with Lombo Laredo (1994), Mitemptation (1995), Argent Treasure (2007), Jack Mac (2017) and Manning (2019). Remarkably, he has been placed in the classic 13 times, with seconds with Classical Gas, Ay Alby, Slick Operator, Capricorn Cruiser, Tiger Reed Lombo, Tightrope, Mister Jadore and Artillery Major, and thirds with Whitby Sportsman, Blackjack Brassie, Backin A Jiffy, Wirrpunda and Lavra Joe.