Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Well-bred two-year-old filly Wicked Lover will resume racing after a spell when she begins from the coveted No. 1 barrier in the 1730m Westside Auto Wholesale Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
And trainer Ryan Bell is planning to get reinsman Aiden De Campo to use the filly’s good gate speed in a bid for an all-the-way win.
“She is a nice big filly and I think the mile will suit, and we will give her a chance and let her run the gate and see whether she is up to them or not,” said Bell. “She is quite forward, having been in work for a while, and we have been waiting for the right race, and I think we might have found it.
“We aim to use barrier one over a mile to our advantage and see whether we’re good enough.”
Wicked Lover raced three times in her first campaign in February and early March this year, with her best performance being when she worked hard to get to the front and then set the pace and finished second to Diamondsareforever over 1684m at Pinjarra.
Wicked Lover will need to be close to her best to defeat smart fillies Ruby Lovera, Iseeubaby and Ruby Lou.
Emily Suvaljko, who will drive the John Graham-trained Iseeubaby from the outside barrier in the field of six, said she expected the filly to improve on what she did when she set the pace from barrier one and won by a half-length from Ruby Lovera over 2130m at Gloucester Park last Friday week.
“She then sprinted her final quarter in 27.9sec.,” she said. “She has really good gate speed and has led in all of her three starts. I don’t know at this stage whether I’ll make a bid for the lead or whether to decide to sit her.”
Trainer Justin Prentice will drive Ruby Lovera, who impressed at her only appearance when she enjoyed the one-out, one-back position before finishing strongly to be a close second to Iseeubaby. Ruby Lovera is ideally drawn at barrier No. 2.
Ruby Lou, trained by Mike Reed and to be driven by Shannon Suvaljko, has won twice from eight starts, and she impressed at Gloucester Park on Tuesday night when she raced in sixth position before gaining an inside run in the final circuit and finished solidly to be a neck second to speedy colt Noble Thorondor.