Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Ravenswood trainer and driver Jocelyn Young will be seeking to complete a hat-trick of wins in the Team Bond Laurie Kennedy Pace when she drives Sugar Delight in the group 3 feature event for mares over 1730m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Sugar Delight, prepared by Cameron Ross, warmed up for this week’s assignment in fine style when she rated 1.56.3 in beating Hunger Strike over 2130m last Friday night, and the five-year-old’s prospects soared when she drew the prized No. 1 barrier.
Young has been successful in the past two Kennedy events — scoring with the brilliant Steno in 2024 and Peaceful 12 months ago. Those two wins came after Young trained and drove The Amber Hare into third place behind Bettor Get It On in the 2023 Kennedy race.
She trained and drove Steno when the mare rated a sparkling 1.51.9 and beat Cyclone Charlotte by a length and a half. And early last year she again trained and drove Steno, who set the pace and won by four lengths from her other runner Peaceful. Subsequently, Steno was disqualified, and Peaceful (driven by Kyle Symington) was promoted to first place.
Last Friday night Sugar Delight revealed excellent gate speed from the No. 5 barrier and set the pace for the first 450m before Young relinquished the lead to Hunger Strike. Sugar Delight got into the clear approaching the home turn and she sprinted home strongly to get to the front 20m from the post and beat Hunger Strike by a metre.
Sugar Delight, a winner at six of her 27 starts, is expected to receive the toughest opposition from outstanding seven-year-old Wonderful To Fly (barrier six), Madam Publisher (three), Champagne Everyone (four) and Hunger Strike (inside of the back line).
Wonderful To Fly is part-owned, trained and driven by Young’s uncle Shane Young, and the WA-bred mare boasts a superb record of 79 starts for 33 wins 22 placings and $861,274 in prizemoney.
Wonderful To Fly will be having her third start after a let-up, and she impressed last Friday night when she began from the outside of the back line and raced in tenth position on the pegs before charging home, out six wide, to finish a close-up fourth, a length from the winner Star Casino.
Wonderful To Fly has a remarkable record and she should appreciate a significant drop in class this week. However, she has not been successful in two attempts to win the Kennedy event, starting from the back line in 2024 and racing in the one-out, one-back position before wilting to finish eighth; and then starting from barrier two and racing three back on the pegs and finishing fourth last year and then being promoted to third after the disqualification of Steno.
Ravenswood trainer Nathan Turvey has the youngest runner in the race, four-year-old Hunger Strike, in excellent form and she is racing brilliantly for Abbey Vidovich, who has handled the mare at her past five starts (at Gloucester Park) for three wins, a second and a third.
Madam Publisher will have many admirers when she begins from the No. 3 barrier for trainer-reinsman Stuart McDonald. The five-year-old, who scored an easy victory in the WA Oks in October 2024, has a losing sequence of eleven, but her recent form has been quite sound.
Seven-year-old Champagne Everyone has resumed after a spell in fine style, with a win and a second placing. But she is likely to be tested at her first appearance for four weeks, with trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo saying: “We found a few little problems with her, but she now seems to be back on track. She has gate speed and so we will go forward.”