Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion reinsman Chris Lewis drove Pallaton into third place behind Captain Elect and Society Guy in the 1979 Christmas Gift — and this summer carnival feature event has continued to elude him ever since.
He has driven in the Christmas Gift 30 times from 1990 when 33/1 chance Nippy Rendina finished second to Smooth Kaden, and he has also had to be content with second placings with Downtown Boy (1992), Regunya Boy (1993), Grand Canyon (1995), Michael Leslie (1998) and Heez On Fire (2014).
The 67-year-old maestro, who has driven 140 winners this season, gets a wonderful chance at Gloucester Park on Friday night to break through and celebrate this festive season by driving talented four-year-old Sugar Street to victory in the $50,000 Group 2 Allwood Stud Farm Christmas Gift.
Sugar Street, prepared by Busselton trainer Barry Howlett, has resumed racing after a spell in marvellous form with impressive victories at Gloucester Park this month. He is a versatile pacer with the ability to overcome the disadvantage of a wide barrier at No. 7 on the front line in the 2130m event.
Sugar Street was not extended when he set the pace from the No. 1 barrier and defeated Dont Bother Me None by more than a length, rating 1.58.4 over 2536m last Friday night when he dashed over the final 400m sections in 27.8sec. and 27.9sec.
Those victories boosted his career record to 31 starts for ten wins, ten seconds, four thirds and $107,607 in prizemoney.
One of the main obstacles standing in the path of a Lewis triumph looms large in the form of star reinsman Gary Hall Jnr, who has won the Christmas Gift five times in the past ten years — scoring with Livingontheinterest (2012), Tuxedo Tour (2014), Rub Of The Green (2016), Herrick Roosevelt (2017) and Jumpingjackmac (2021).
Hall will drive the Michael Young-trained Firerockfireroll, whose prospects soared when the five-year-old drew the prized No. 1 barrier. Firerockfireroll has raced eleven times in WA for three wins in stands. His four runs in mobiles at Gloucester Park have produced three fourths and a fifth placing.
Firerockfireroll is not generally considered a frontrunner, but Hall certainly is sure to be contemplating a strong bid to take full advantage of the draw by attempting an all-the-way win. It is interesting to note that five of his wins in Victoria (three at Melton and one each at Ballarat and Terang) were when he set the pace.
Two starts ago Firerockfireroll gave a splendid performance when he was ninth 600m from home and sprinted powerfully, going five wide on the home turn, to finish second to Himself, who followed that effort with his brilliant victory in the Group 1 Golden Nugget last Friday night.
Ragazzo Mach, one of six four-year-olds in Friday night’s race, will be popular with punters, following his strong win in a 2536m Free-For-All last Friday night when he raced in sixth position, one-out and two-back, before finishing boldly with a three-wide burst to win by a neck from Prince Of Pleasure, rating 1.56.6.
That was Ragazzo Mach’s first win for just over ten months, but there is little doubt that he is capable of replicating last week’s effort this week for trainer Mike Reed and reinsman Shannon Suvaljko. He will begin from the No. 5 barrier.
Another four-year-old Machnificent has drawn poorly on the outside of the front line, but the Katja Warwick-trained stallion is a brilliant sit-sprinter, who cannot be left out of calculations.