Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion trainer Gary Hall Snr looks forward to the Winter Cup every year — and he has high hopes of winning the $50,000 Retravision Winter Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night with the lightly-raced six-year-old Prince Of Pleasure.
Hall has been a dominant force in the Winter Cup, having won the group 3 event a record ten times, scoring with Kaydee (1994), The Falcon Strike (2003), Iontheball (2006), Washakie (2008), Im Themightyquinn (2009 and 2013), Davy Maguire (2012), Machtu (2015), Run Oneover (2016) and Tact Major (2019).
He prepared the trifecta when Run Oneover beat Ideal Alice and Waylade and went desperately close in the 2020 Winter Cup when Chicago Bull surged to the front in the home straight and was beaten in the final stride by a nose by the fast-finishing Ocean Ridge.
Ocean Ridge was trained by Greg and Skye Bond, who hold a strong hand in this year’s 2536m Winter Cup with the brilliant Patronus Star and his evergreen stablemate Galactic Star.
Deni Roberts has given punters a strong lead by choosing to drive Patronus Star ahead of Galactic Star, who she guided to an easy all-the-way victory over The Mustang and Prince Of Pleasure in a 2536m Free-For-All last Friday night. Roberts also was in the sulky when the ten-year-old Galactic Star led and won over 2536m three starts earlier.
Galactic Star is awkwardly drawn at barrier seven on Friday night when he will be driven by Aiden De Campo. Patronus Star, who will be having his third start after a spell, will begin from the No. 5 barrier, with Prince Of Pleasure better drawn at barrier three.
Prince Of Pleasure, who has won at twelve of his 29 starts, set the pace and won twice (over 2130m and 1730m) last month before finishing a half-head second to Finvarra over 2130m and a slightly disappointing third behind Galactic Star and The Mustang over 2536m last Friday night after enjoying an ideal passage in the one-out, one-back position.
Prince Of Pleasure will be driven by Gary Hall Jnr, who has won the Winter Cup seven times. Prince Of Pleasure excels as a frontrunner, but he has two fast beginners, The Code Breaker and The Mustang, on his inside.
The Code Breaker is trained by Ryan Bell, who prepared Shockwave for his Winter Cup victory two years ago. The Code Breaker will be driven by Kyle Symington, who has been booked for eight drives on the ten-event program.