Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion reinsman Chris Lewis is the consummate professional and he is not fazed at the prospect of attempting to lower the colours of his wife Debra, who trains three of the runners in the five-horse Keep Up To Date On The Allwood Stud Website Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Lewis will drive the brilliant four-year-old Ray Jones-trained Lavra Joe, who will start from barrier three where he will be surrounded by Debra Lewis’s runners Hampton Banner (barrier one), Mirragon (two) and Spy Major (four).
“This is probably not the first time it has happened,” said Lewis. “I’ll have to look at the opposition (when contemplating my tactics). It was a good run by Lavra Joe last week and there’s no reason why he can’t run a really good race again. Hampton Banner did an excellent job, too (when he set the pace and finished a head second to Lavra Joe in the 2130m Group 3 Howard Porter Memorial).”
Lavra Joe started from the No. 4 barrier in last Friday night’s event and enjoyed an ideal passage, one-out and one-back, before starting a three-wide move 600m from home, taking a narrow lead at the 100m and maintaining that advantage over Hampton Banner for the rest of the race in which the final quarters were covered in 27.8sec. and 28.2sec.
“Lavra Joe travelled good and ran on well, and I was very happy with him,” said Lewis. “I don’t think that life (for Lavra Joe) this week will be easy. Most likely I’ll be three back on the pegs or in the breeze. Hampton Banner is a very quick horse out.”
Lewis has formed a wonderful association with Lavra Joe, having driven him at his past 36 starts for 23 wins. But he is sure to have some sort of misgivings as he plans to beat Hampton Banner and Mirragon. He has driven Hampton Banner to all of his nine wins in WA, and he has been in the sulky for all of Mirragon’s eight wins in the State.
Jocelyn Young has handled Hampton Banner at the New Zealand-bred pacer’s past two starts, and she will be handling the five-year-old again this week when he is certain to begin with his usual brilliance, with Young keen to set the pace.
Gary Hall Jnr has been engaged to drive Mirragon, who was driven by Lewis in a 2130m event last Friday night when the gelding began speedily from barrier six but was unable to cross to the front and then worked hard in the breeze before wilting to finish third behind Jaspervellabeach.
Lewis was also in the sulky the previous Friday night when Mirragon burst to the front from barrier four and set the pace before holding on to win by a neck from Doc Holliday.
Maddison Brown will drive Spy Major, who rises considerably in class and will be the outsider of the field. Lewis had an armchair drive when Spy Major set the pace and scored an effortless victory in modest company on Tuesday night, rating a slow 2.1.1 over the 2536m journey.