Alta Blues, an unruly pacer as a youngster, did not race as a two-year-old and then frequently paced roughly and broke in running during seven trials as a three-year-old before he made his debut in a race at Pinjarra 13 months ago — when he broke and dropped back to last before finishing strongly to win easily.
He was frustrating to say the least, but perseverance by champion trainer Gary Hall snr and his son, star reinsman Gary Hall jnr, is paying handsome dividends.
Now a four-year-old, Alta Blues has come of age and looks set for many more victories. Favourite at $1.30, Alta Blues dashed to the front after 100m and gave a powerful frontrunning exhibition to score an easy victory over Vespa in the 2536m Be Breast Aware Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night. It was a commanding performance which saw him sprint over the final quarters in 28.9sec. and 27.3sec.
“He went super,” said Hall jnr. “He is quite a nice horse, and he will be in Free-For-All company very quickly — when he will be tested. In his early days he was hanging, hitting his knee and breaking up, and he didn’t know how to handle it.
“Now he still hits his knee, but he works through it. We have tried spreaders, but he was no better. Without them, you’re better off.”
Alta Blue, owned by Sue Thistlethwaite and Karen Hall, has earned $79,096 from nine wins and four seconds from 17 starts. By former star pacer Alta Christiano, Alta Blues is the eighth foal out of Child From The Sea, who raced 36 times in Canada for seven wins, six placings and $34,647.
Child From The Sea is a half-sister to former American champion pacer and now successful sire Somebeachsomewhere, who had 21 starts for 20 wins and one placing for stakes of $3,328,755.
Written by Ken Casellas | Photo Credit: Hamilton Content Creators