Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Talented and lightly-raced four-year-old Cyclone Charlotte is one of the State’s best pacing mares, and she looks set to complete a hat-trick of victories when she contests the $30,000 WASBA Four And Five-Year-Old Mares Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
She will start from the No. 5 barrier in the 2130m event and Aiden De Campo will have several options to consider as the race unfolds.
Cyclone Charlotte, trained by Ray Williams, has set the pace and won, and she was most impressive at Gloucester Park last Friday week when she started from the outside of the back line, settled down in eighth place, lost a couple of lengths when checked 1300m from home and then unleashed a devastating three-wide burst to career away and win by five lengths from Beyond The Sea after covering the final 800m in 56.2sec.
She should carry too many guns for her rivals, including Nevermindthechaos, Dontbesillychilli, Alta Queen and last-start winners Sahara Storm and Elsamay.
Nevermindthechaos, trained by Michael Young, has won at twelve of her 34 starts and should improve greatly on her first-up last placing behind Raven Banner two weeks ago when she raced in the breeze before fading badly.
“She had a problem last start, and should be much better this week,” said reinsman Gary Hall Jnr. However, she faces a stern test against Cyclone Charlotte from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line.
Dontbesillychilli continues to race very well for Bunbury trainer Sarah Wall. She met with severe interference in the first lap and did very well to run on from eighth at the bell to finish fifth behind Cyclone Charlotte last Friday week.
Champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond will be looking to land a first four result in the final event, the $21,000 TAB Radio Pace for two-year-olds, when they will have four of the five runners — Golden Lode (Gary Hall Jnr), Prince Of Pain (Dylan Egerton-Green), The Masked Crusader (Mitch Miller) and Vegas Strip (Deni Roberts). That quartet will be opposed by Jemma Hayman’s promising colt Off The Charts, who will start from the outside barrier.
Vegas Strip will start from barrier four and should prove one of the best bets of the night. He made a most impressive Australian debut when he set the pace and won easily from Artful Major over 1609m at Bunbury on Tuesday of last week when he sped over the final quarters in 28sec. and 27.4sec.