Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Sugar Apple, the $1.30 favourite in the 2130m Ken Casellas Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night, appeared certain to be beaten when he was passed by the $6 second fancy Sugar Street in the home straight.
However, punters were relieved when Sugar Apple fought back determinedly to beat his rival by a length, rating 1.56.9 after final quarters of 29.7sec., 27.1sec. and 28.7sec.
Sugar Street raced in the breeze all the way and he challenged the frontrunning Sugar Apple hard 250m from home before he got to the front by a neck 125m from the post.
Trainer-reinsman Lindsay Harper said he was not particularly concerned when Sugar Apple was headed in the home straight, saying: “I have watched Sugar Street in all his starts and have liked him a lot. He has won many races but has never won from the breeze. Therefore, I was pretty confident that Sugar Apple would fight back.
“Sugar Apple will have a few more starts before having a break. I think he has a future. It has taken him a while to acclimatise here, and I think he will be a much better horse after a spell.”
Sugar Apple, a five-year-old by American sire Sweet Lou, is raced by leviathan owner Michael Boots, a 61-year-old big-time player from the Riverina district in New South Wales.
Boots owns more than 200 harness horses who are prepared by 40 trainers all around Australia. His horse Swayzee won the $412,500 New Zealand Cup last November, seven months after he was successful with Betterzippit in the $1 million Nullarbor slot race at Gloucester Park.
Sugar Apple is widely travelled, having won once from six New Zealand starts and then winning eight times in NSW and once in Victoria, as well as having four unplaced runs in Queensland. The gelding has had eight starts in WA for two wins and one second placing and has a career record of 42 starts for 12 wins, seven placings and $105,261.
Sugar Apple is the third foal out of Maddison’s Delight, and is a half-brother to American Dealer, who has amassed $676,230 in stakes from 21 wins and 25 placings from 84 starts.
American Dealer’s seven wins from 23 New Zealand starts included the Group 1 Sires Stakes final at Alexandra Park in September 2020 and the Group 2 Alabar Classic for three-year-olds at the same track in December 2020.
He then raced 12 times in Australia for three wins in Brisbane (including the Queensland Derby at Albion Park in July 2021) and was placed at five of his seven Victorian starts before racing with great success in the United States.
Robin Hood, a younger full-brother to Sugar Apple, has had 22 starts for three wins, five placings and $36,492.