Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Ravenswood trainer Jocelyn Young has star five-year-old Steno at her peak for the $100,000 Barbagallo Norms Daughter Classic at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and she looks the winner after drawing an ideal barrier at No. 2.
Young should use Steno’s sparkling gate speed to burst straight to the front and make life tough for her richly talented rival Aardiebytheseaside, who will start from barrier four.
“To lead is always the first plan,” said Young, who gave Steno an impressive warm up for this week’s Group 2 feature event for mares when she contested the Group 3 Navy Cup against eleven horses and geldings last Friday night.
Steno began from barrier two and raced outside the pacemaker Lavra Joe for the first 450m before dropping back to race in the sixth position, one-out and two-back. After a fast third 400m section of the final mile of 27.9sec. Steno was switched three wide 250m from home and she finished strongly to be an excellent third behind Captain Ravishing and To Fast To Serious.
“With another run under her belt (her third after a spell) Steno will be fitter this week,” said Young, who finished third with The Amber Hare behind Eighteen Carat in the 2022 Norms Daughter Classic.
Two weeks before last week’s third placing Steno set the pace from barrier one and won easily from Stormyskyes and Three Rumours over 2130m. Ardiebytheseaside broke in the score up and then raced without cover before fading to finish ninth.
Aardiebytheseaside, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, then bounced back in style when she led from barrier one and won easily from Little Darling and Penny Black over 2130m last Friday night, with final quarters of 28.8sec. and 27.1sec.
“She won nicely last week,” said star driver Deni Roberts. “Hopefully, in a couple of weeks Aardiebytheseaside will get a draw inside of Steno. But she will still go well this week, even though she will have to do a bit of work at some stage.”
Young holds a strong hand in this week’s event, in which she will be represented with Castella Dellacqua (barrier six) and Peaceful (barrier two on the back line). Maddison Brown will handle Castella Dellacqua, and Kyle Symington will drive Peaceful. Each of the four-year-olds is racing in fine form.
Trainer-reinsman Shane Young will be looking for a strong showing from Wonderful To Fly, who is ideally drawn on the inside of the backline. Wonderful To Fly returned to top form last Friday night when she sprinted home brilliantly from eighth at the 400m to win from dead-heaters Hampton banner and Cordero.
Michael Young’s Penny Black (Gary Hall Jnr), Barry Howlett’s Little Darling (Chris Lewis) and Kim Prentice’s Soho Seraphine (Mitch Miller) are all in excellent form, while young trainer Corey Peterson will be looking for a solid first-up performance from smart seven-year-old Nullarbor Navajo, who faces a tough assignment from out wide at barrier nine.