Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Exciting New Zealand-bred gelding Cyclone Jordy looks set to follow in the footsteps of star pacer Never Ending by setting the pace and winning the $150,000 Channel 7 Golden Slipper at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Never Ending was not extended when, as the $1.30 favourite, he led from barrier one and won easily from Skylord and Lusaka in the 2022 Golden Slipper, setting a race record with a 1.55.1 rate over the 2130m.
Cyclone Jordy has drawn the No. 1 barrier and reinsman Gary Hall Jnr is planning an all-the-way victory to give him and his father, Hall Of Fame trainer Gary Hall Snr, their third success in the prestigious classic event for two-year-old pacers.
Hall Snr trained and drove Love Of Glory to win the race in 1989, and he and his son combined for the win of Beaudiene Boaz in 2014. Hall Jnr then brought up his third win when Never Ending, prepared by Justin Prentice, outclassed his rivals two years ago.
Cyclone Jordy warmed up for this week’s assignment when, at his Australian debut and at his first start for 20 weeks, he strolled to the front after 250m and set the pace before sprinting over the final quarters in 28.5sec. and 26.8sec. to win by four lengths from Como El Viento last Friday night.
“Number one is a perfect draw for Cyclone Jordy, and all is good with him since his win,” said Hall Jnr. “The plan will be to use his gate speed. Not many (pacers) come over from New Zealand with a huge amount of gate speed because they are not driven for early speed.
“He has blistering gate speed. I thought he could win this week from any barrier, and now we have the seemingly soft option.”
Como El Viento and Last Hard Copy are trained by Aiden De Campo. They filled the placings behind Cyclone Jordy last Friday night, and De Campo is looking for strong efforts this week from both colts.
De Campo, who drove Como El Viento last week, has opted to handle Last Hard Copy this week.
“Both went really good last week,” he said. “Como El Viento was beaten by a better horse on the night, while Last Hard Copy put up what was near on his best career run. I’ll drive Last Hard Copy because from the inside of the back line he should get a good run behind Cyclone Jordy, and hopefully he can run second.”
Como El Viento has drawn barrier two and will be driven by Mitch Miller. “He will find it a bit harder this week, but he will hold a forward position,” said De Campo. “He is quite tough, so it won’t matter if he has to work a little bit.”
Leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond have three runners, Mad Monday (barrier four), Belly Up (barrier five) and Captainshavtime (barrier nine).
Mad Monday, who has finished second at his past two appearances (behind Como El Viento and Xpress Party), will be driven by Dylan Egerton-Green. Stuart McDonald will drive Belly Up, a brilliant last-start winner over Captain Stirling and Paint the Palette, and Deni Roberts will handle Captainshavtime, who is unbeaten at her five starts in Western Australia.
Roberts drove the Bond-trained $1.70 favourite Vegas Strip to an easy all-the-way win in the Golden Slipper 12 months ago. The Bonds were successful in the 2016 Golden Slipper with Mitch Maguire, and Greg Bond trained Ohokas Bondy for his win in the classic in 2010.
Justin Prentice, who trained and drove Mighty Ronaldo (2020) and Tricky Miki (2021) for Golden Slipper wins, prepared Never Ending for his victory in 2022. He trains and drives Paint The Palette, who will start from the No. 2 barrier on the back line on Friday night. Paint The Palette, an easy winner on debut at Pinjarra five starts ago, has been placed at three of his subsequent four starts.