Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Roguish behaviour by Gaitcrasher as a young pacer drove his trainer Annie Belton to distraction, so much so that she was forced to give him the sack after his first 12 starts produced two well-beaten third placings at Pinjarra and unplaced efforts at Gloucester Park at tote odds of $126 (twice), $91 and $81.
“One day he wasn’t doing the work I was asking of him,” said Mrs Belton. “He was throwing his head about this way and that way, and then when I put him in the cart, he wanted to put me through the fence.
“So, I thought I was too old for this, and I decided to sack him, I wanted to be fair to the owners and I rang Aiden De Campo, who said he was willing to take him into his stables.”
Remarkably, after being off the scene for ten months, Gaitcrasher, now a four-year-old, has resumed in superb fashion, winning brilliantly at his first three starts for De Campo, including an effortless all-the-way victory when he beat Kinsaabi by three and a half lengths in the $23,000 Bathroom Central Autumn Series final over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
After being despised by punters and starting at very long odds earlier in his career, Gaitcrasher has now won at $1.32, $1.01 and $1.30 odds at his three starts for the De Campo stable.
“Annie Bolton had him and he was getting big and fierce and putting Annie in danger,” said De Campo. “He was quite big as a two and three-year-old and was taking his time to grow into his body.”
Mrs Belton said she was rapt with the way Gaitcrasher was performing for De Campo. “We always knew he was a good horse who would develop into a smart pacer as a four-year-old,” she said.
Gaitcrasher, who was driven by Joey Suvaljko on Friday night, replacing the suspended De Campo, was not extended in winning at a 1.57.5 rate. Suvaljko, who works for De campo as a stablehand, said: “You don’t realise how much it means to me for Aiden to have the confidence in me to put me on his horses. And it’s nice to drive a nice horse.”
Gaitcrasher was an impulsive and headstrong pacer as a youngster, and after Gordon Day paid $85,000 for him at the Perth APG yearling sale in 2022, he went to Trevor and Colleen Lindsay’s property where on the first night there he burst through a gate and careered into a paddock.
This was the reason why Day named him Gaitcrasher, who looks destined to develop into a star performer. Day races the gelding in partnership with his wife Carol and their children Marielle, Blaine and Keelan.
The gelding has now earned $30,178 from his three wins and two thirds from 15 starts. He is by crack American sire Always B Miki and is the first foal out of Art Major mare Innocent Affair, who raced 32 times for seven wins and ten placings for stakes of $51,641. In 2018 Innocent Affair won four races at Bunbury, twice at Gloucester Park and once at Pinjarra.
Innocent Affair’s full-brother Restrepo earned $527,118 from 19 wins and ten placings from 49 starts, and her younger half-brother Goodfellaz has had 42 starts for 14 wins, 15 placings and $182,677 in prizemoney.