Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Powerful five-year-old pacer Whataretheodds, described by his trainer Ryan Bell as being lucky to be alive, is fit and healthy again and he showed he is set for a successful campaign when he gave a bold frontrunning display to win the 2130m Nathan, Nat and Shaun For Breakfast Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Starting favourite at $1.20 and driven confidently by Aiden De Campo, Whataretheodds dashed over the final 400m in 28sec. and beat $9 chance Linebacker by just over a length, rating 1.57.8 over 2130m.
This was his third appearance after a seven-month absence, following encouraging seconds at his two previous outings.
“He is a good horse, but we have had nothing but health problems with him,” said Bell. “We couldn’t pinpoint the problem, though we thought it was his lungs, and we were told to get him out of the State because WA was no good for horses with bad lungs. He kept having colic attacks and I couldn’t get him to go, so I sent him to Sydney to Luke McCarthy.
“But Luke couldn’t get him healthy. The horse was there for ten months, and he kept getting sick and didn’t even make it to hopple work or trials.
“He returned to WA, and we got him going and he had three starts back (last spring), and they were good runs (a win, a third and a fourth). But then one night after those runs, I heard a ruckus at the stables, and he was having a major colic attack and was half dead.
“He then required surgery when it was discovered that he had worms that were attacking his colon. After surgery he went up to the hills in Gidgegannup where he was put on a diet of oats, horse grow weaner pellets and an iron supplement. He came back jet black and in good health, and we have had no health problems with him since then.”
Whataretheodds, who is raced by a syndicate after Bell purchased him for $25,000 at the 2020 Perth yearling sale, now has had 22 starts for seven wins, seven seconds and one third for stakes of $96,133.
He looks set to shine on the track, following his wonderful early promise when as a two-year-old he finished second to Rock On Top in the Westbred Classic for colts and geldings and second to Tricky Miki in the Golden Slipper.
“It’s only the tough ones who survive,” said Bell, who is planning to run Whataretheodds in the $30,000 Westbred Winter Four And Five-Year-Old Classic next Friday night.