Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Champion reinsman Chris Lewis is noted for his conservative predictions, and he smiled when he declared “he should lead and give it a good shake” when assessing Lavra Joe’s prospects in the $50,000 HTA Reaching For The Top August Cup over 2536m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Lavra Joe, an outstanding four-year-old, has drawn perfectly at barrier one, and he should enjoy a trouble free trip in front and prove too good for his eight rivals and give Lewis his second win in the August Cup, following his victory with Dasher VC, who surged home from eighth in the middle stages to defeat Cromac Johnny in 2012.
“Lavra Joe felt good when he led and won from Gambit last Friday night,” said Lewis. “He had a couple of comfortable runs leading into that race.”
Lavra Joe, owned and trained by Ray Jones, revealed his great gate speed last week when he charged forward from the outside barrier in the field of six and was untroubled to set the pace before sprinting over the final 400m in 26.9sec. and beating Gambit by a length, rating 1.56.6 over 2130m.
Hall Of Fame trainer Gary Hall Snr has four-year-old Jumpingjackmac racing keenly and is hoping that the gelding can cause an upset and beat Lavra Joe to give him his eighth win in the August Cup, following successes with Zakara (1992, 1993, 1994), Im Themightyquinn (2010), Northview Punter (2014) and Chicago Bull (2018 and 20120).
Jumpingjackmac, who won from Chicago Bull and Diego two starts ago, will be handled by Gary Hall Jnr, who admitted that Jumpingjackmac (barrier three) faced a seemingly impossible task to beat Lavra Joe. “We will be heading for the fence,” he said.
The Hall stable will also be represented by Gambit (Stuart McDonald), Diego (Maddison Brown) and Will I Rocknroll (Deni Roberts).
McDonald is hoping that Gambit will cause an upset and give him his second win in the August Cup, following his shock victory with the Ross Olivieri-trained Jambiani, a $96.10 outsider, who finished fast from fifth at the bell to beat the Hall-trained Ideal Alice by two lengths in 2017. McDonald also drove Runrunjimmydunn when he led and finished second to Chicago Bull in the 2018 August Cup.
Handsandwheels, who finished third behind Chicago Bull in the 2020 August Cup, will start from barrier four at his fourth appearance after a 23-month injury-enforced absence. He has been freshened up since finishing fifth behind Diego at Gloucester Park four weeks ago. That followed his third (after leading) behind Magnificent Storm and Patronus Star in a field of four in the 2190m York Cup at Northam the previous week.
“I was more than happy with his work this morning (Tuesday) than I have been with his first three runs back,” said trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo. “He shows that he is improving, and there’s still a bit of improving left in him. He is definitely on the way up, but it is going to be hard to beat Lavra Joe, who grows a leg in front.”