Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr commands a massive following, and his faithful fans enjoyed a bonanza and cashed in handsomely when he landed outsider Dontbesillychilli a shock winner over brilliant four-year-old mare Wonderful To Fly, the $1.08 favourite in the $27,000 Gloucester Park Free-For-All for mares on Friday night.
Dotbesillychilli, trained in Bunbury by Sara Wall, was a $58.40 tote outsider who started at $61 on the fixed market after being quoted at $91 earlier in the day.
Wonderful To Fly began speedily from barrier two and challenged the polemarker and $13 chance Star Of Diamonds for the early lead. But Wonderful To Fly was unable to cross Star of Diamonds, and Shane Young was happy to take the sit with the super mare with a record of 28 wins and $562,230 in prizemoney.
This left Dontbesillychilli (from the No. 7 barrier) in the breeze. Then when passing the winning post for the first time, Young opted to switch Wonderful To Fly to the breeze.
Star Of Diamonds sped over the second 400m section of the final mile in 28.1sec. before Wonderful To Fly took the lead with 600m to travel. The third quarter was covered in 28.5sec. and Hall then was happy to angle Dontbesillychilli to the pegs to trail Wonderful To Fly.
Hall eased Dontbesillychilli off the pegs 200m from home and the four-year-old mare sprinted home strongly to gain the upper hand in the final couple of strides to win by a head, rating 1.55.8 over the 2130m.
“Wow, how good did she go,” exclaimed Hall. “I was hoping to hold on to the back of Wonderful To Fly for as long as I could, and then I couldn’t believe that she was still travelling. She was amazing, and Sara was ecstatic.”
Mrs Wall said she was hoping that Dontbesillychilli would finish fourth or fifth. “But going down the back I was hoping that she would hold on and run second. And when she was still travelling coming into the straight, I thought ‘maybe; maybe not.’ It was a great drive.
“I specifically started Dontbesillychilli in this race with the hope that she would go well in Free-For-All company to enable her to get a start in the feature event for mares later this year.” Dontbesillychilli now has earned $137,560 from ten wins and 14 placings from 46 starts.