Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Four-year-old mare Copy Cat Queen is one of the most exciting pacers racing at Gloucester Park in recent weeks and she gave another wonderful exhibition of her dazzling speed when Joey Suvaljko drove her to a brilliant victory in the $25,000 Quayside Transport Pace (1) over 2536m on Friday night.
She was the $3.20 favourite from the outside of the back line who raced in sixth position, one-out and two-back, before unleashing her trademark sizzling sprint to burst to the front 130m from the post and going on to win by just under four lengths from the pacemaker and $3.60 second fancy Dark Eyes.
Copy Cat Queen rated 1.57.4 after sprinting over the final 400m sections in 27.8sec. and 27.1sec. She resumed racing after a six-month absence with a runaway win at Pinjarra on June 16, and she now has won at four of her five starts and earning $50,239 as a four-year-old and is developing into a formidable candidate in the rich feature events for mares later in the year.
She was driven for the first time in a race by the 22-year-old Suvaljko, with Copy Cat Queen’s trainer and regular reinsman Aiden De Campo enjoying the final couple of days on holiday in Fiji.
With De Campo overseas, the training of Copy Cat Queen has been shared by his father Andrew, Suvaljko and Ajay Markham.
“I had my first drive on her in trackwork on Tuesday, and tonight everything worked out fine,” said Suvaljko. “Sometimes she gets a bit keen and is inclined to pull but she did everything right. I pulled the plugs when I really didn’t need to.”
Copy Cat Queen has earned $127,960 from eleven wins and six placings from 31 starts.
Suvaljko continued in winning vein when he won with the De Campo-trained two-year-old colt Weelsofortune, an $8.50 chance who overcame difficulties to finish strongly from sixth at the bell and get up a snatch a last-stride win by a nose from the pacemaker Drop The Ace over 1822m at Narrogin on Saturday night.