Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Talented gelding The Miki Taker, winner of the group 1 Pearl for two-year-olds last June, is poised to make a strong bid for victory in next Friday night’s $40,000 Caduceus Club Classic.
The Always B Miki gelding, trained and driven by Aiden de Campo, ran a splendid trial for the group 3 event when he revealed excellent fighting qualities to win the SEFS Asset Finance Specialists Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The Miki Taker, second favourite at $2.90, started out wide at barrier seven and raced without cover in the first lap before taking up the running. He was challenged strongly by his stablemate and $11 chance Rock On Top, who dashed forward from sixth at the bell to get a half-length in front of The Miki Taker about 350m from home.
However, The Miki Taker fought back grandly to regain the lead in the home straight and go on to beat Rock On Top by a head. The final quarters were run in 28.2sec. and 28.3sec. and the winner rated 1.55.6 over the 2130m trip.
“The Miki Taker is a bit on the lazy side,” said de Campo. “But he normally sharpens up with a run under his belt, and this should top him up nicely for next week’s classic. Rock On Top was pretty good tonight, and I plan to start him in next week’s race.
“Rock On Top got to the lead by a half a length, and it was good to see him return to his best form because he was pretty poor the previous Friday night (when last behind Swingband in the Sales Classic final).
“The Miki Taker is quite a lazy horse, but he always keeps going. He could’ve gone another lap tonight, just whacking away.”
The Miki Taker has earned $113,981 from six wins and five placings from 13 starts. He is the second foal out of Art Major mare Topless Beach Girl, who had 21 starts for one wins, ten placings and stakes of $21,810.