Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
After injuries forced champion pacer Magnificent Storm to miss the rich Nullarbor slot race in the past two years, the seemingly indestructible nine-year-old is on target to run a powerful race in the $1,250,000 feature event next Friday night.
“All roads lead to next week,” said star reinsman Aiden De Campo after driving Magnificent Storm to an effortless victory in the $50,000 Group 3 Barbagallo Motoring Excellence Governor’s Cup over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
And trainer Ray Williams was delighted with the New Zealand-bred gelding’s performance and is confident that he will prove hard to beat in the upcoming big race.
“Magnificent Storm is a good doer, and he will have a couple of days off now,” he said. “Then he will do his jog work on Monday and have two gallops later in the week.
“He is the closest I’ve seen, with great gate speed, to Has The Answers, and he reminds me of that horse.” Has The Answers possessed dazzling gate speed, and it was this asset that enabled him to win the start and set a fast pace in most of his 76 victories between 2004 and 2013 before his retirement with earnings of $1,326,582.
Magnificent Storm, the $1.04 favourite on Friday night, burst straight to the front from out wide at barrier eight. He then ran smart quarters of 30sec., 28.7sec., 27.9sec. and 27.8sec. to coast to a 2m win over $17 third favourite Mighty Ronaldo, who raced in fifth place in the one-out and one-back position before charging home with an eye-catching late burst.
Magnificent Storm rated 1.55.1 and took his earnings to $1,490,427 from 47 wins (37 at Gloucester Park).
“He wasn’t as sharp as he can be, but when he doesn’t have a horse outside of him in the home straight, he tends to coast a bit,” said de Campo.
“When Mighty Ronaldo got close to him in the final stages, I flicked Magnificent Storm up and he changed gears again. He was having a bit of a bludge on us, but he ran a good last 1200m.”
Ace trainer Justin Prentice said he was thrilled with Mighty Ronaldo’s flying finish. “He went super,” he said. “I was hoping he could run second but you don’t expect to take ground off Magnificent Storm.”