Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
New Zealand owners Syd and Shona Brown were delighted to win the Fremantle Cup with My Field Marshal in January 2019, and now they have high hopes that Diego will repeat the dose and give them another victory in the $300,000 Retravision Fremantle Cup on January 13.
Their confidence was boosted when Maddison Brown drove the Diego to a brilliant victory in the $30,000 NYE @ Gloucester Park Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
My Field Marshal, on a brief visit to Perth in the summer of 2018-19 for trainer Tim Butt and reinsman Anthony Butt, had three starts, winning the Village Kid Sprint and Fremantle Cup and then finishing fourth in the WA Pacing Cup.
Now the New Zealand-bred Diego, a rising seven-year-old, could go one better than My Field Marshal by winning both the Fremantle and WA Pacing Cups in January.
Diego was the $1.90 favourite from the prized No. 1 barrier on Friday night when Brown (no relation to the pacer’s owners) got the Bettors Delight gelding away smoothly and rated him perfectly after a lead time of 37.5sec., followed by quarters of 30.4sec., 29.9sec., 26.5sec. and 27.8sec. He won by 4m from stablemate and $18 chance Gambit, rating 1.54.9 over the 2130m.
Magnificent Storm, the $2.35 second fancy, started from the back line settled down in sixth position in the one-wide line before he started a three-wide burst 900m from home and fought on in fine style to finish third.
Brown went into the race fully mindful of the previous time Diego had begun from the No. 1 barrier —- in a 2130m Free-For-All five starts earlier, on October 28 when he was the $1.95 favourite who galloped at the start and was always well back before finishing ninth behind Gambit.
“Once I got him out of the gate tonight and got him over that little hurdle, he experienced from barrier one when he didn’t get out, I was confident of victory,” said Brown.
“I have formed a good relationship with Diego and would love to drive him in the Cups.”
Diego, who has raced 74 times for 19 wins, 19 placings and $318,009, will have his next start in the $100,000 Stratton Cup next Friday week before contesting the Fremantle Cup the following Friday and the WA Pacing Cup two weeks after that event.
Champion trainer Gary Hall Snr, who prepares Diego and Gambit, said he was looking forward to having five runners in the two big Cups — Diego, Gambit, Jumpingjackmac, Wildwest and Prince Of Pleasure.
Then in an unexpected declaration Hall said: “I reckon my best one in the Cups is Prince Of Pleasure, even though he might not get a start (he is currently listed at No. 14 in the rankings for the two events).
“He’s the best horse, ability wise. The other night (when second to Ragazzo Mach on December 16) he was four wide and only got run down because he did all the work, and the other horse trailed him. He is not used to that pressure racing.
“Of the others, I can’t separate Gambit and Diego. Wildwest won the Pacing Cup a year ago, and Jumpingjackmac is as good as the others, but he doesn’t win that often.
“Prince Of Pleasure will run next Friday night and try to win a Free-For-All to enable him to move up the list in the rankings.” Prince Of Pleasure is lightly raced, having had only 18 starts for eight wins and three placings for stakes of $69,674.