Ken Casellas | Photo: Gloucester Park Harness Racing
An easy trial win by August Moon over 2185m at Pinjarra on Wednesday of last week was a pointer to a strong first-up performance in the 1730m Barbagallo Watch Pace for three-year-old fillies at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Her clash with the highly-promising Fly To Fame should be a highlight of the nine-event program.
August Moon, who will be racing first-up for 21 weeks, was handled by her trainer Luke Edwards when she set the pace and romped to a nine-length win over Gliding Star in the Pinjarra trial. She began speedily from barrier four and after a slow opening quarter of 32.6sec. she ran the following 400m sections in 30sec., 29.5sec. and 28.7sec.
She will be having her first start since she came from the rear to be fourth, out three wide, at the bell in the group 1 Westbred Classic on September 16. She then broke into a gallop with 750m to travel and dropped back to finish a distant tenth behind Zephyra.
At her previous start August Moon set the pace from barrier three and won by a head from Zephyra. She was driven in those two starts by Gary Hall Jnr, who will be in the sulky again in Friday night’s race in which she will start from the No. 3 barrier.
Also reappearing after a spell will be the Katja Warwick-trained Fly To Fame, who will be driven by Chris Lewis from barrier five.
This will be Fly To Fame’s first appearance for seven weeks, since she raced wide early and then in the breeze before finishing third behind Cabsav over 1730m on December 23.
Fly To Fame was most impressive in winning at her two previous outings, racing in the breeze before beating Valentinathebullet, and running on strongly from sixth at the bell to defeat Cabsav over 2130m.
The Mike Reed-trained Cabsav cannot be left out of calculations. Her 19 starts have produced four wins, seven seconds and two thirds. She will be driven by Shannon Suvaljko and will start from the outside barrier in the field of seven.
Edwards also will be hoping for a solid effort from Lucienne, who has won once from eleven starts. She will begin from the No. 2 barrier and will be driven by Emily Suvaljko.
Trainer Paula Petricevich will be represented by the polemarker Candy Apple (Mitch Miller) from barrier one and Sweet Vivienne, who will start from barrier four, with Kyle Harper in the sulky.