Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Maddison Brown was more than happy to oblige when trainer Jocelyn Young asked her to drive Castella Dellacqua in the $27,000 SEFS, You Name It, We Fund It Free-For-All at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Young chose to drive stablemate Peaceful in preference to Castella Dellacqua, whom she had driven to an easy victory the previous Friday night.
Peaceful was a well-supported $2.60 favourite from barrier No. 5, while Castella Dellacqua was the fourth fancy at $8.40 as the sole runner on the back line.
Nase Vira ($2.90) set the early pace from the No. 1 barrier before surrendering the lead after 650m to Peaceful, who raced four wide early and then challenged Nase Vira hard for the lead, resulting in a fast lead time of 35.4sec.
Peaceful got to the front after 650m and set a fast pace, with the final three quarters whizzing by in 28.5sec., 28.5sec. and 28.6sec.
With the breeze runner Sister Cherie wilting, Brown was able to ease Castella Dellacqua off the pegs 250m from home, and the mare went three wide approaching the home turn before hitting the front 90m from the post and winning by almost two lengths from Peaceful, rating 1.55 over 2130m.
This was the Victorian-bred Castella Dellacqua’s sixth win from 18 starts in Western Australia and took her career record to 28 starts for seven wins, nine placings and $101,949.
“Castella Dellacqua is a nice mare, and she had a soft run, while Peaceful didn’t perform as well as we had hoped,” said Young. “But I’m not particularly disappointed, considering the early burn.”