Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Up-and-coming Lazarus colt Grevis will warm up for the $215,000 Westbred Classic for two-year-old colts and geldings on Friday week when he contests the Nova 93.7 Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The Aiden De Campo-trained youngster underlined his potential and his prospects in the rich feature event when he trailed the pacemaker Waverider and finished with a powerful burst to finish a neck second to his stablemate Menemsha in the group 2 Pearl Classic last Friday week.
Grevis, Menemsha and Ideal Muscle will give De Campo a strong representation in the Westbred Classic. Ideal Muscle, who raced four back on the pegs and finished fast along the sprint lane to win from Arma Believer over 1684m at Pinjarra on Monday of last week, will start from the outside of the back line. Ideal Muscle will be driven by Trent Wheeler, with De Campo choosing to handle Grevis from the more favourable No. 2 barrier on the front line.
“I wanted to give Grevis a run this week, leading into the big race the following Friday,” said De Campo. “He didn’t do too much (work) when second last week when he sat on the leader’s back. And if he leads on Friday night, he will go close to winning.”
Other Westbred Classic candidates in Friday night’s event include stablemates Ten To The Dozen and Thenu Came Along (trained by Greg and Skye Bond).
Ten To The Dozen, a winner at five of his ten starts, will start from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line under the conditions of the race. He possesses dazzling gate speed and will have many admirers. He will be handled by his regular driver Deni Roberts, with Maddison Brown being engaged to drive Thenu Came Along, a winner at two of his eight starts, starting from the No. 7 barrier.
The Bond stable will also be represented by the smart New Zealand-bred gelding Vegas Strip, who will start from out wide at barrier eight with Dylan Egerton-Green in the sulky.
Vegas Strip has been driven by Roberts at his first two Australian starts — for convincing all-the-way victories at Bunbury and Gloucester Park. He rated 1.57.3 when he sprinted over the final quarters in 28sec. and 27.4sec. when he beat Artful Major over 1609m.
Then Vegas Strip rated a modest 2.0.8 in winning easily from stablemates Golden Lode and Prince Of Pain in a 2130m event at Gloucester Park four Fridays ago. After a slow lead time of 39sec. and dawdling opening quarters of 32.7sec. and 31.2sec. Vegas Strip dashed over the final 400m sections in 29.4sec. and 27.5sec.
Shannon Suvaljko has given punters a lead by choosing to drive the Kevin Keys-trained Dark Eyes in preference to the Justin Prentice-trained Manhattan Moon, who will be handled by Chris Lewis from barrier three. Dark Eyes (barrier four) led from the No. 2 barrier and won from Quinton over 2190m at Northam last Saturday night.