Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
The much-anticipated match race between Always An Angel and Booraa eventuated, with the quality three-year-old fillies locked in battle throughout the 1730m Allwood Stud Committed To The Future Of Harness Racing In WA Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Booraa ($2.45) burst straight to the front from the No. 5 barrier, with Gary Hall jnr sending Always An Angel ($1.60) forward from the outside in the field of seven to race in the breeze.
After opening 400m sections of 30.4sec. and 29.4sec., the tempo increased in the final circuit as Always An Angel challenged hard for the lead. Booraa, driven by Ryan Warwick, sped through the third quarter in 28.5sec. and she and Always An Angel were locked together over the final section in 28.7sec. with Always An Angel prevailing in the final stride to gain the verdict by a nose, rating 1.56.1.
“If she keeps having tough runs, I’ll probably not give her too many more starts in this preparation because she will be drawing outside barriers,” said trainer Justin Prentice. “And that makes it too hard for fillies, mentally, not that hard runs seem to bother her. She never wins by far, and tonight she stuck her nose in front at the right time.”
Always An Angel is by Art Major and is the first foal out of the Christian Cullen mare Angel of Destiny, who raced ten times without winning and recording three placings for prizemoney of $4182. Always An Angel has had 18 starts for 11 wins, five placings and stakes of $179,654.