Ken Casellas | Photo: Pacepix
West Australian-bred five-year-old Eldaytona gave further proof that he is one of the State’s frontrunners when he scored yet another all-the-way victory at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“Barrier No. 1 is a big advantage here,” said trainer-reinsman Lindsay Harper after Eldaytona, the $1.50 favourite, dictated the terms of the 2130m event and held on to beat the top-flight New Zealand-bred Major Perry ($3) by a head.
Eldaytona relishes the role of pacemaker and his win on Friday night boosted his record to 53 starts for 15 wins, 17 seconds and five thirds for earnings of $190,250. He has set the pace in twelve of his wins.
Harper admitted that he went into the race with plenty of respect for Major Perry, who was making his WA debut and was having his first start for 20 weeks.
Major Perry began from barrier six in the field of seven and Deni Roberts restrained him to the rear as the runners settled down in Indian file formation. He was last with 600m to travel and was forced three wide as he surged home to fail by only a head to catch Eldaytona.
“Major Perry is a very nice horse and he got close to me at the end,” said Harper.
Roberts was full of admiration for Major Perry, saying: “He shouldn’t have got that close the way the race was run. It didn’t help with two other horses taking off in front of him. He will be exciting.”