Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Veteran trotter Nickys Son made amends for his narrow defeat by a head at the hands of Patched in the Group 2 $50,000 Trotters Cup two weeks earlier by finishing strongly to beat Patched by one metre in the $21,000 Village Catering Free-For-All Trot over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Patched was the $2.80 second fancy behind Hold That Gold ($2.65), while Nickys Son, driven by Chris Lewis, represented good value as the $7.50 third favourite.
From barrier six Hold That Gold made an unsuccessful bid for the early lead and was trapped out three wide before being restrained back to last in the field of eight.
Patched, who was last early, was sent forward after a lap to get to the front, past the early leader and $126 outsider Majestic Courtney, who had ambled through the lead time in 39.3sec. and the opening quarter in 31.1sec.
Aldebaran Sundown ($14) was working hard in the breeze, thus giving Nickys Son a perfect sit in the one-out, one-back position. Lewis waited until 300m from home before urging Nickys Son forward with a three-wide burst. Nickys Son proved too strong in the home straight and won by a metre from Patched, rating 2.1.4 after final 400m sections of 29.7sec. and 30.1sec.
Lewis said that Aldebaran Sundown was racing strongly in the breeze. “This enabled me to make my move a bit later than I expected to,” he said.
The WA-bred nine-year-old Nickys Son is trained by Michael Munro and now has a record of 68 starts for 14 wins, 25 placings and $134,339. He is by American sire Imperial Count and has inherited much of his ability from his dam Nicky Eileen, who earned $125,549 from her 13 wins and 32 placings from 113 starts. Nicky Eileen’s wins included eight at Gloucester Park and two at Pinjarra.