Veteran square gaiter Tenno Sho ended a ten-month drought and broke a losing sequence of 18 when he was on his best behaviour and gave an impressive frontrunning display to beat Dark Secret by five and a half lengths in the group 3 Wake Up With Sunrise On Seven Trotters Sprint at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The eight-year-old Victorian-bred gelding rated 1.57.4 to equal the track record for trotters over the 1730m journey. The record was set by Invasive when he won a group 2 Great Southern Stars qualifying heat, beating Geez Speedy Gonzalez on January 15, 2016.
“Tenno Sho has been a bit of a handful, and credit is due to Michael Grantham who was driving him for the first time,” said owner John Jelf. “When he’s behind the mobile he sort of jumps like a kangaroo.”
Tenno Sho had been unplaced at his previous eight starts and was on his worst behaviour when last in a field of six at Gloucester Park last Tuesday week when he raced roughly, hung in and broke twice in running.
“He also suffered from heat stress after that event,” said Jelf who bought the gelding quite cheaply from Nathan Turvey more than a year ago.
Tenno Sho is one of several trotters in the Pinjarra stables of Tracy Reay, who was successful with On Fast Forward in the race in which Tenno Sho finished last on Tuesday of last week.
Tenno Sho was a $23 tote outsider on Friday night, with On Fast Forward at $13 and Reay’s other runner Mortician at $81. On Fast Forward finished seventh and Mortician was sixth in the field of ten.
Reay has also had success with pacers, winning races in 2005 and 2006 with veteran chestnut Kobiashi Maru, and her most recent success with a pacer was when New Zealand-bred El Cartel won at Gloucester Park on Tuesday September 4, 2018, after the mare had won at $68.10 in a metropolitan-class event, beating the $2.90 favourite Sheez Edgy by a head on December 22, 2017.
Tenno Sho has had 131 starts for 15 wins, 42 placings and stakes of $144,154.
By Ken Casellas