Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr will be bidding to win the Garrard’s Horse And Hound Easter Cup for a record seventh time when he drives the inexperienced five-year-old Franco Motu in the testing 2503m event at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Franco Motu has won at eight of his twelve starts — and it is significant that he has not been beaten at his five appearances in standing-start events — by four lengths at Addington as a three-year-old and by two lengths at Timaru as a four-year-old, as well as winning at his three runs in stands in WA — by two lengths after starting off the 30m mark and by one and a half lengths and five lengths from 40m.
His latest success was last Friday night when he began from 40m and won by just over five lengths from My Silver Spoon when the final three 400m sections (off the front) were run in 28.7sec., 28.8sec. and 28.8sec.
However, Hall is cautious when assessing Franco Motu’s winning prospects of Friday night, saying: “The field is better than the field he was in when he won last week. Franco Motu will want to be on his best behaviour.
“He got away pretty good last week, and he had things going all his way (when he enjoyed an ideal passage in the one-out and one-back position). It’s hard to see him getting that run again. However, he should be hard to hold out. I’d like to drive him sit-kick.”
Franco Motu, who is trained by Gary Hall Snr, has been confirmed as a runner in the $1,250,000 TABtouch Nullarbor slot race next Friday week when that mobile event will be run over 2536m.
Hall Snr has won the Easter Cup as a trainer with The Falcon Strike (2003), Patches (2006), Rebel Scooter (2013) and Skylou (2024), while Hall Jnr has won the Cup with The Falcon Strike, Patches, Rebel Scooter, Uppy Son (2012), Znana (2016) and Skylou.
The only other reinsman to have won the Easter Cup six times is evergreen champion Chris Lewis, and it is interesting that one of his winners, frontmarker OK Windermere, set the pace and dead-heated for first with the 30m backmarker Patches, who was driven by Hall Jnr for his father.
Looming as one of the main dangers to Franco Motu is four-year-old Last Hard Copy, who will begin from the 20m mark for leading trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo, who won the Easter Cup last year with four-year-old Ideal Muscle, who began from the front line and dashed to the lead after 600m on his way to winning by a half-length from Spyglass, the sole 40m backmarker who surged home from last in the middle stages.
Last Hard Copy made a splendid debut in a standing-start event when he began smoothly from 20m and impressed in running home powerfully from eighth with a lap to travel to finish a head second to Petes Honour over 2503m last Friday week.
“That was a really good first-up run,” said De Campo. “He probably needed the run, and hopefully he improves on that effort. He is only a little horse, and he will need things to go his way.”
The New Zealand-bred Spyglass, trained and driven by Lindsay Harper, will begin from 30m on Friday night and deserves serious consideration. His only other start in a stand apart from his second in last year’s Easter Cup was when he began from 60m in a field of seven at Gloucester Park on February 4 last year and won by a head from Star Casino. His past 14 appearances have been in mobiles, including an all-the-way victory over 2130m two starts ago.
Ace reinsman Chris Voak trains three runners in Friday night’s Cup — My Silver Spoon (10m), Our Vinnie (10m) and Maximum Rock (30m). “I will drive My Silver Spoon, who should be a good place chance,” said Voak, who won the 2014 Easter Cup with the Ross Olivieri-trained metropolitan-maiden eight-year-old Finbar Abbey.
Kyle Harper will drive Our Vinnie, and Shannon Suvaljko has been engaged to handle Maximum Rock.
Apart from Last Hard Copy, the only other four-year-old in the race will be Chase Me, who will begin from the 30m mark and will be driven by Stuart McDonald for Hall Snr.
The Michael Young-trained Eclipse Line is a proven standing-start performer, and Emily Suvaljko is planning to make a concerted bid for the early lead after starting from the inside of the 10-metre line.
“I think that the front-line runners will hand up, so we have just got to try to step quicker than Chris Voak’s runners in a bid to get to the front,” said Suvaljko.