Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Star four-year-old Taking The Miki has resumed after a spell in a blaze of glory for trainer Jemma Hayman and reinsman Chris Voak, and she has drawn perfectly at barrier one in the $50,000 WASBA Breeders Stakes at Gloucester Park on Friday night when she faces the biggest test of her burgeoning career.
Her five starts in this campaign have resulted in four convincing victories and an unlucky third behind Hector in the Easter Cup after galloping at the standing start.
This week Taking the Miki will clash with two of the State’s best mares Wonderful To Fly and Eighteen Carat, with Voak determined to take full advantage of the prized No. 1 draw by setting a brisk pace in a bid to keep those mares at bay.
Taking The Miki is extremely versatile, and she excelled as a freewheeling frontrunner last Friday night when she scored an effortless win over Jill Mach and Three Rumours in the 2503m Race For Roses.
Wonderful To Fly, trained and driven by Shane Young, has won at 23 of her 38 starts, and her four starts in her current campaign after an absence of five months have been full of merit. She began out wide at barrier eight, raced wide early and then in the breeze before finishing third behind Eighteen Carat and Miss Boudica over 2130m last Friday week.
She was unlucky when badly hampered for room until late when a half-head second to Simply Shaz in the 2536m Empress Stakes two starts before that. She is awkwardly drawn at barrier No. 7 but has the ability to overcome that disadvantage.
Six-year-old Eighteen Carat, trained by Michael Young and driven by Gary Hall Jnr, is in superb form, with convincing wins on the past two Fridays at Gloucester Park after setting the pace. She has won at ten of her past 16 starts and is sure to fight out the finish on Friday night.
Eighteen Carat will start from the inside of the back line, leaving Hall with options — to trail the likely pacemaker Taking The Miki or to ease off the pegs soon after the start before waiting for the ideal opportunity to forge forward. The second option could be the better of the two.
Busselton trainer Barry Howlett has Three Rumours racing with plenty of enthusiasm, and the five-year-old is favourably drawn at the No. 2 barrier, with champion reinsman Chris Lewis likely to contemplate his options — whether to make a bold bid to cross Taking The Miki at the start or to rate the mare in the breeze.
Three Rumours showed sparkling gate speed from the No. 1 barrier to set the pace and win the 1684m Golden Girls Mile from Nevermindthechaos at Pinjarra four starts ago. She began from the 10m mark and dashed forward in the first circuit to race without cover for most of the journey in finishing third behind Taking the Miki in last week’s Race For Roses.