Ken Casellas | Photo: Pacepix
All-conquering trainers Greg and Skye Bond hold the whip hand in the $30,000 Call Garrard’s Horse And Hound For All Your Equine Needs Free-For-All at Gloucester Park on Friday night with four of the eight runners, Steel the Show, Patronus Star, Minstrel and Galactic Star.
And the stable’s No. 1 driver Deni Roberts has given punters a perfect lead by choosing to drive Steel the Show, who will start from the prized No. 1 barrier at his first appearance since finishing an excellent fourth behind Betterzippit in the $1 million Nullabor Slot race three months ago.
Steel The Show has impressed in winning at four of his six West Australian starts, and Roberts is expected to take advantage of the New Zealand-bred six-year-old’s excellent gate speed in a bid for an all-the-way victory.
Dylan Egerton-Green will drive Patronus Star (a winner at 15 of his 52 starts) from barrier two, Colin Brown will handle Minstrel, a winner at 17 of his 47 starts, from the No. 4 barrier, while Brown’s daughter Maddison will be in the sulky behind ten-year-old veteran Galactic Star, a winner at 33 of his 130 starts.
Leading reinsman Gary Hall Jnr has decided to drive August Moon in the Garrard’s Rio Cobra Sulky Pace for three-year-old fillies in preference to last-start winner Sporting Grace.
Both August Moon and Sporting Grace, along with Purest Copper and Hunt the Magic, will be seeking to end the winning run of the Katja Warwick-trained Fly To Fame.
Fly To Fame, an extremely smart and versatile filly, is handily drawn at the No. 3 barrier, with August Moon at barrier four and Sporting Grace at No. 5.
August Moon, trained by Luke Edwards, is resuming after a spell, following a highly successful campaign early in the year when she won three races in succession at Gloucester Park, with the first two of those victories notable in that she defeated Fly To Fame.
Hall said that Edwards was “pretty happy with August Moon’s work” and that the filly was likely to prove one of his better drives on the program. “She has had the wood on Fly To Fame in the past,” he said.
Henley Brook trainer Kevin Keys and star reinsman Shannon Suvaljko will be looking for an early double with Hoppys Way and Blitzembye drawn the coveted No. 1 barrier in the first two events on the program.
Both pacers have excellent gate speed and are capable frontrunners.
Trainer Nathan Turvey has high hopes that Mea Culpa will bounce back to top form when he starts from the No. 2 barrier in the Garrard’s Horse And Hound Australia and New Zealand Wide Pace.
Mea Culpa was the $1.55 favourite in a 2130m event last Friday night when he was crossed at the start by Kimble, and even though he got off the pegs 850m from home he was hampered for room in the final lap and was an unlucky fourth behind Kimble.
“He should go well, and I’m hoping he gets out quicker than he did last week,” said Turvey. “I have put a hood on him this week.”