Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
“Golden Lode is probably the better horse at this stage, but it is very hard to jump off Mad Monday,” said star driver Deni Roberts when choosing the latter as her drive in the $50,000 Group 3 Allwood Stud Four and Five-Year-Old Championship over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Roberts has handled four-year-old Mad Monday for impressive victories at his past five starts, taking his career record to 23 starts for ten wins, five seconds and $166,078 in prizemoney, and she has been in the sulky for eight of five-year-old Golden Lode’s 13 wins.
Both pacers are owned by Team Bond and are trained by Greg and Skye Bond, with Golden Lode amassing $489,308 in stakes from 13 wins, 12 seconds and five thirds from 48 starts.
Kyle Symington has been engaged to handle the New Zealand-bred Golden Lode, a speedy Always B Miki gelding he has driven only once, when charging home from the rear to finish second to Max Delight in the $1.25 million Nullarbor slot race two starts ago.
A week after that outstanding performance Roberts drove Golden Lode from the inside of the back line in the $300,000 Fremantle Cup when he trailed the pacemaker Magnificent Storm and finished second to the champion pacer over 2936m.
“Both horses are winning chances,” said Roberts. Mad Monday produced an exceptional performance last Friday night when he began from the back line and was eighth at the bell before being switched three wide at the 300m and bursting to the front 50m from post and winning by almost a length from Im Lightning Banner, rating 1.55.1 over 2130m.
Gary Hall Jnr has opted to drive Sweet Pins in preference to Double Parked, a recent arrival from New Zealand who will begin from the outside barrier on the back line.
Sweet Pins, trained by Gary Hall Snr, is ideally drawn at barrier one and should fight out the finish providing he reproduces the form which enabled him to surge home from eighth at the bell and win easily from Del Bocavista Bay, rating 157.2 over 2185m at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. The final three quarters were covered in 28.6sec., 28.6sec. and 28.4sec.
“He went super,” said Hall Jnr, who trains five-year-old Double Parked, who will be making his Australian debut on Friday night with Stuart McDonald in the sulky.
Double Parked will be making his first appearance for 14 weeks and is sure to be driven patiently with a sit before being called on for a strong finishing effort. He has raced 24 times in New Zealand for five wins and eight placings.
Runkle Crunch, the WA Derby winner late last October, is handily drawn at barrier two on the back line and is capable of a bold effort for trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo. He has been forced to work hard at his four starts in his current campaign for two strong wins, a second placing behind Mad Monday and a last-start eighth behind Mad Monday when he covered a lot of extra ground.
Opal Hunter, trained and driven by Robbie Williams, is favourably drawn at barrier two and will have admirers after promising placings at his past two starts, while trainer-reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green will be looking for a strong effort from Im Lightning Banner (barrier three) after the five-year-old’s excellent second to Mad Monday last Friday night.