Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Promising three-year-old filly Soho Broadway, a half-sister to former outstanding millionaire pacer Soho Tribeca, will make her West Australian debut when she contests the Bringing Home The Bacon Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
A winner of four races in Victoria, Soho Broadway is a newcomer to the stables of Gary Hall snr and she should be prominent, even from the wide draw of No. 7 in the field of eight.
“She is a nice type, a solid sort of filly,” said reinsman Gary Hall jnr. “I think she definitely will need the run, even though she seems pretty fit,” he said.
Also making her debut in WA will be another former Victorian performer Sahara Storm, who is being prepared by Nathan Turvey and will be driven by Emily Suvaljko from barrier No. 5.
Sahara Storm and Soho Broadway have clashed ten times in Victoria, with Soho Broadway finishing ahead of her rival eight time before Sahara Storm crossed the finish line in front of Soho Broadway on the past two occasions the fillies met — at Melton in May and June this year.
“Sahara Storm was a nice filly in Melbourne,” said Turvey. “I expect this week’s race to develop into a tactical battle between Sahara Storm, Soho Broadway and Three Rumours.”
Sahara Storm has had 22 starts for four wins and five placings. She finished solidly from fourth at the bell to win easily from Tay Tay over 2100m at Geelong three starts ago, on October 6, before finishing third at her next two appearances, over 1790m at Warragul and over 2080m at Cranbourne.
She started from barrier three and took the lead after 150m in the Cranbourne race before taking the sit behind the pacemaker Leer 250m later and battling on to finish third, three lengths behind Captain Bellasario.
Three Rumours, trained in Busselton by Barry Howlett, will be handled by Chris Lewis. She was a $21 chance from the No. 6 barrier in a 1730m three-year-old race at Gloucester Park on Tuesday night when she settled in sixth place, out three wide, before Lewis restrained her to the rear 300m after the start. Then, 200m later, she met with interference and galloped, losing several lengths. She then raced at the rear and finished ninth behind Robbie Rocket.
At her previous outing, at Narrogin last Saturday night, Three Rumours raced in the breeze before winning by a half-length from King Memphis at a 2.3.5 rate over 2242m. Three Rumours impressed with second placings in consecutive starts behind the very smart filly Always An Angel at Gloucester Park in August and September. Those two performances showed that she is sure to prove very hard to beat on Friday night.
Three Rumours is a smart frontrunner, and from the No. 4 barrier she has a distinct advantage over Soho Broadway and Sahara Storm.
Soho Broadway is the seventh foal out of the unraced Tasmanian Art Major mare Pixel Perfect, the dam of seven winners, including the brilliant Soho Tribeca, who was retired to stud with earnings of $1,103,854 from 21 wins and 24 placings from 59 starts.
After nine wins in Victoria, Soho Tribeca won at his WA debut when he beat Franco Rayner and Chicago Bull in the $25,000 Four-Year-Old Classic at Pinjarra in November 2016. Then starts later he won the group 1 Golden Nugget, and in January 2018 he won the WA Pacing Cup, defeating Chicago Bull.