Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
“He’s a leader who also goes well on the rails but is not very effective off the rails,” said trainer Michael Young after Gary Hall Jnr had driven $3.20 favourite Ideal Tomado to a narrow win over the $4.80 second fancy Ira Poole in the 2130m Garrard’s Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Ideal Tomado was first out from the No. 1 barrier, and after a slow opening quarter of 32sec. and a modest second 400m of 29.8sec. he sprinted over the final quarters in 28.4sec. and 28.8sec. to beat Ira Poole by one metre after that pacer had raced in the breeze throughout.
Ideal Tomado was having his first start for five weeks — after leading and being pressured for much of the way before fading to finish seventh behind Lusaka.
“That was a very tough run, and he needed a break,” said Young. “I haven’t done a lot with him since that run, and he was pretty big in condition tonight.”
Ideal Tomado came to Australia after having had 29 starts in New Zealand for one win (as a four-year-old over 2200m at Cambridge in July 2021 when he sat behind the pacemaker and finished strongly along the sprint lane) and nine placings.
He now has had 53 starts for ten wins, 13 placings and $84,667. He is by American Ideal and is the second foal out of President Tomado, who raced 57 times for eight wins, eleven placings and $53,450.