Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Speedy four-year-old Sorridere emerged as a worthy contender for the $200,000 Golden Nugget on December 13 when he gave a bold frontrunning display top win the $50,000 John Higgins Memorial over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Interestingly, Sorridere’s trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo was not expecting to set the pace with the WA-bred gelding, who was the third favourite at $9.10 from the No. 4 barrier.
But when the polemarker and $1.70 favourite Whataretheodds lugged out badly at the start, De Campo took advantage of the situation and dashed Sorridere straight to the front.
“It wasn’t my plan to go to the front,” said De Campo. “I just wanted to get out as hard as I could to see where we got to. And when Whataretheodds didn’t get out as quickly as I expected we bounced to the front, and from there we were always going to be hard to beat.
“Sorridere should measure up to the Golden Nugget. His best asset is his high speed, and in the better races he can be driven with a sit. He will go for a break now before coming back to get ready for the big races for four-year-olds later in the year.”
Sorridere set a solid pace on Friday night, with three-year-old Vegas Strip, the $4.60 second fancy, in the breeze, and Whataretheodds hemmed in behind the pacemaker.
The third quarter of the final mile was run in 28.1sec. before the final 400m took 28.8sec. with De Campo wisely not dashing away with Sorridere, thus keeping Whataretheodds under lock and key behind him.
Whataretheodds final got into the clear about 70m from the post. He finished fast, but the bird had flown, with Sorridere beating him into second place by just over a half-length, rating 1.57.
High Price ($34) did a splendid job to sustain a strong burst from tenth at the bell to finish third, just ahead of Vegas Strip, who was attempting to stretch his winning sequence to seven.
Sorridere is raced by Rob Tomlinson’s Oz-West Pacing in partnership with Damian Keating and Peter Morris. He is by American stallion Sunshine Beach and is the fifth foal out of McArdle mare Smile With Me, who had 40 starts for ten wins, 15 placings and $80,819, with all her wins coming from 21 starts in Western Australia.
Sorridere, who has earned $120,268 from 11 wis and 12 placings from 32 starts, is a half-brother to To Fast To Serious (64 starts for 18 wins, 15 placings and $263,493).