Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Not only does champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr have to make a split-second decision during a race which ultimately determines the result, but he is frequently called on to make a tough choice on drives that influences his legion of faithful fans.
The 42-year-old maestro commands a massive following, and punters will surely be swayed by his thoughts on race two at Gloucester Park on Friday night, the $23,000 Gary Hall Jnr Ultimate Driver Series Slot Pace over 2130m.
Hall was nominated to drive Love On The Rocks, Im The Black Flash and Rolling Fire, and his decision to handle the Justin Prentice-trained Rolling Fire comes as a strong and significant indication of his confidence in the four-year-old’s ability to win at his first appearance for 17 weeks.
Indeed, Hall has good reason to pick Rolling Fire ahead of Love On The Rocks and Im The Black Flash, who are trained by his father Gary Hall Snr.
Rolling Fire has a remarkable 100 per cent winning record when racing first-up for Prentice — scoring on debut at Pinjarra in March 2022, at Gloucester Park in August 2022, at Pinjarra in April 2023, at Bunbury in July 2023 and at Gloucester Park in February this year.
Hall has driven Rolling Fire at six of his eleven wins from 26 starts, and Friday night marks the start of his campaign which is aimed at the $200,000 Golden Nugget on December 13.
Trent Wheeler has been engaged to drive Love On the Rocks, who has drawn the prized No. 1 barrier, and Maddison Brown will handle Im The Black Flash from the No. 6 barrier.
Hall has driven Love On The Rocks at the New Zealand-bred seven-year-old’s first three starts in WA for a win, a second and a third placing. In New Zealand the gelding’s 37 starts produced seven wins and ten placings (including two thirds behind Ragazzo Mach).
Im The Black Flash, an easy last-start winner at Gloucester Park last Friday week, has won at eleven of his 24 starts, with Hall in the sulky for nine of those victories.
Hall, who was inducted into the WA Racing Industry Hall Of Fame in 2019, achieved an important milestone at Gloucester Park last month when he notched his 4000TH driving success on a night in which he landed six winners, one short of his Australian record for the most number of wins at a metropolitan-class meeting.
After a double at Narrogin on Tuesday night Hall’s tally of winners is 4009, and this took his season’s tally to 134. This his 20TH consecutive season that he has recorded a century of winners.
He is currently at the head of the metropolitan leading drivers’ list with 83 winners — two ahead of Shannon Suvaljko and four in front of Deni Roberts. He has headed the metropolitan list 15 times, and is in second place behind Fred Kersley Jnr, who topped the list 17 times. Hall has driven 2738 city winners, of which 1785 have been in metro class events.
Hall has been a shining light since his first drive, in a C2-class 2650m mobile event at Pinjarra on July 26, 1998, the day he celebrated his 16TH birthday by guiding New Zealand-bred gelding Enhancer to victory over Of Auld Aberdeen.
Since then, his successes include three Interdominion championships with Im Themightyquinn, nine WA Pacing Cups, nine Fremantle Cups, six WA Derbies, a record five Australian Pacing championships, and dozens of rich feature events.
He is a genuine superstar, a humble and self-effacing champion who amazes and delights harness racing fans with his remarkable skill, flair and ingenuity in the sulky.
He is cool, calm, composed and calculating as he weaves his magic, driving with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker and with the dash and flair of a Spanish matador.
A laid-back character with a special affinity with horses, Hall admits that, at times, he suffers from nerves. But he is the ultimate professional when it comes to his preparation for the tasks at hand.