Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Champion mare Wonderful To Fly has drawn the prized No. 1 barrier in the $27,000 HTA Setting New Standards In Hoisting Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and trainer-reinsman Shane Young is planning to use her excellent gate speed in a bid to lead and beat the speedy Steno and end that mare’s winning sequence of four.
Steno, trained and driven by Young’s niece Jocelyn Young, will start from the No. 3 barrier in the 2130m event, with her driver also planning to use the five-year-old’s dazzling gate speed.
Two starts ago Wonderful To Fly was the $1.40 favourite from the No. 1 barrier in the 2130m group 3 Christmas Belles when she was beaten out by the $5.10 chance Steno, who set a fast pace from barrier four and won easily from Three Rumours, rating 1.55.5. Wonderful To Fly trailed the pacemaking Steno before wilting to finish fifth.
Then, last Friday week Wonderful To Fly reappeared after a seven-week absence when she began from the back line, enjoyed an ideal sit in the one-out, one-back position and faded to finish eighth in the field of nine, almost eight lengths behind the frontrunning Steno.
“The plan this week will be to hold up as good as we can,” said Shane Young. “We couldn’t hold out Steno in the Christmas Belles, but we will be doing our best to win the start. Leading is our best chance of winning.
“Wonderful To Fly has been disappointing at her past two runs. Now we will have the opportunity to see where we’re at. She wanted to get down a bit at her latest start, so I will put a Murphy blind on her and see how she goes.”
While Wonderful To Fly is an established champion with earnings of $736,490 from 30 wins and 14 placings from 53 starts, Steno is a budding superstar who has raced 37 times for 17 wins, ten placings and stakes of $328,301.
Jocelyn Young said she expected Steno to prove hard to beat. “Her work has been good and there is improvement in her,” she said. “She is still pretty big in condition.
“I will be aiming her at the Golden Girls Mile at Pinjarra (on March 18). It is a race I would love to win, particularly after I had to scratch The Amber Hare from that event last March, following her win in the Lombardo Free-For-All ten days earlier.”