It was an eerie feeling watching superstar pacing phenomenon Chicago Bull battling up the home straight to finish sixth behind his veteran stablemate Whozideawasthis in the 2536m Christmas In July at the Beau Rivage Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
It was a rare sight indeed, with the champion eight-year-old finishing outside the top four for the first time in 77 memorable appearances at the track.
His previous 76 starts on the track had produced 55 victories, twelve seconds, seven thirds and two fourths.
Chicago Bull was resuming after a spell and having his first start for 18 weeks. He was the $2.05 favourite from out wide at the No. 8 barrier. Gary Hall Jnr launched the star off the gate with a sizzling three-wide burst in a bid to either get to the front or to the breeze.
Chicago Bull challenged hard but was unable to cross the $4.60 second fancy Vultan Tin, when Emily Suvaljko made her intentions clear that she was in no mood to surrender the breeze position on the outside of the polemarker Whozideawasthis.
Hall Jnr then wisely abandoned his tactics and restrained Chicago Bull back to the rear of the field of ten. After the early speed battle, the pace slackened and Maddison Brown, driving with wonderful assurance, was able to dictate terms.
She gave the ten-year-old Whozideawasthis a comfortable time in the lead with the first quarters of the final mile in 31sec. and 29.9sec. before increasing the tempo with final 400m sections of 28.1sec. and 28.9sec.
Whozideawasthis scored in fine style, beating stablemate and $9.50 chance Eloquent Mach by just under a length, with Vultan Tin a head away in third place. Eloquent Mach had enjoyed the perfect trail behind the leader all the way.
Hall eased Chicago Bull three wide 900m from home and the old champion gradually worked his way forward to move into fourth place on the home turn. But he was left with a finishing burst and finished sixth.
Brown praised Whozideawasthis, saying: “He has had a few setbacks during his career, was able to come back and now is doing a great job for a ten-year-old. He showed a couple of starts ago that he can lead and beat Vultan Tin, so why not tonight. He has been ticking all the boxes, so there’s no reason why he needs a break yet.”
Trainer Gary hall Snr said that Whozideawasthis had bowed a tendon twice and was currently trouble free. “He is an on-pace horse, and when you drive him on the fence or in front, he’s a good horse. When he follows them and gets pushed wide, he’s no good.
“Chicago Bull has pulled up well, and it was worth a try, going forward, tonight. They will all write him off now. But it will be at their peril. I did warn everybody that I had trouble finding him the company to work with. He will be back.”
by Ken Casellas