Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Magnificent youngster Never Ending had champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr concerned when he fired up and failed to settle down after being hotly challenged in the early stages by $41 chance Rocket City in the $150,000 Channel Seven Perth Golden Slipper at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
However, Never Ending’s class prevailed, and he shook off Rocket City’s attack and then became fired up as he set the pace and went on to score a superb victory in the group 1 classic, rating 1.55.1 to set a race record, lowering Mighty Ronaldo’s 1.55.5 when he defeated Give Us A Wave in the 2020 Golden Slipper.
The victory completed an unprecedented Golden Slipper hat-trick for the 34-year-old trainer Justin Prentice, following the wins of Mighty Ronaldo and Tricky Miki last year. It also gave Prentice his 25th success in a group 1 feature event. For Hall it was his 61st win in a group 1 race and his second driving success in the event, following his win with Beaudiene Boaz in 2014.
“Never Ending went super,” said a jubilant Hall. “He pulled his brains out. I had to rev him up to hold the lead when challenged. I had to give him a little smack, and then I couldn’t hold him. He was pulling so hard that I was worried.
“We know he’s good, but we didn’t know whether he could keep going after pulling so hard. But he won easily. He didn’t have much left in the tank, but neither did any of the others. here is still a lot of improvement in him. He is now going for a spell before he comes back as a three-year-old next year.”
Never Ending, raced by a syndicate of 13, was purchased for $57,000 at the 2021 APG Perth yearling sale, and he now has raced six times for six wins and $274,485 in prizemoney.
He was the $1.30 favourite from the No. 1 barrier on Friday night, and after a smart lead time of 36.1sec. he dashed over the final quarters in 30sec., 29.1sec., 28sec. and 29.2sec. He won by just over a length from $26 chance Skylord, who ran home strongly from eighth at the bell to be second, just ahead of $34 chance Lusaka, who trailed the leader all the way.
Never Ending is by American stallion Sweet Lou and is the eighth foal out of the Die Laughing mare Endless Journey, who managed two placings from nine starts, a third at Bunbury and a second at Northam.