Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Aggressive driving by Deni Roberts paved the way for Tualou’s easy victory in the 2130m Westral Honeycomb Blinds Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Tualou, the $1.40 favourite, began from out wide at barrier No. 7 in the 2130m event, and Roberts identified the $3.90 second fancy Franklin Delano, a winner at his three previous starts, as the likely pacemaker and Tualou’s most serious rival.
Therefore, she implemented her plan to prevent Franklin Delano from having an easy time in front by applying plenty of pressure to the frontrunner.
Roberts sent Tualou forward, three wide, from the start and the big New Zealand-bred gelding moved to the breeze after 350m, and after 900m Tualou led by a neck before he dashed away to a clear advantage 450m from home on his way to winning by two lengths from Franklin Delano, rating 1.57.5 after final quarters of 27.6sec. and 28.4sec.
Tualou gave leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond four winners on the night, after they were successful earlier with Golden Lode, Aardiebytheseaside and Gee Heza Sport. For Roberts, this was the third leg of a driving treble, following her wins with Aasrdiebytheseaside and Gee Heza Sport.
“That was so impressive; he was so relaxed,” said Roberts after Tualou’s victory. “I think he has started to turn the corner, and I expect we will see a pretty good version of him in the future.
“It was a tough decision to drive Christopher Dance in the WA Derby (three weeks ago) ahead of Tualou. I went with the known class of Christopher Dance, but Tualou is special in his own right.
Tualou is quite a big horse and is still growing, so we will let him tell us where he’s at, regarding his racing program.”
Tualou is by Sweet Lou and is the second foal out of Mach Three mare Ask Again, a winner at three of her 19 starts for stakes of $34,034. Tualou won once from three New Zealand starts and his six wins and three seconds from eleven WA starts has given him a record of 14 starts for seven wins, three placings and $71,218.