Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Velocipede, a big, tall and athletic two-year-old, showed he has a bright future when he gave a splendid frontrunning exhibition to score an easy victory in the $20,250 The Current Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr, who had driven stablemate Hes Never Been Beta three times for three wins, gave punters an important lead when he opted to drive Velocipede in preference to Hes Never Been Beta.
However, Hes Never Been Beta, driven by Stuart McDonald, was a warm favourite at $1.70, with Velocipede the second fancy at $3.30 in the field of six.
Velocipede began smartly from the No. 2 barrier and dashed to a clear lead before ambling through the lead time in a slow 40.1sec. and dawdling through the opening quarters of the final mile in 32.6sec. and 31.5sec. He then sprinted over the final 400m sections in 28.8sec. and 27.7sec. to win by 5m from Hes Never Been Beta.
Hes Never Been Beta raced wide early and then in the breeze before battling on gamely.
Velocipede has had seven starts for two wins, two seconds and stakes of $20,983.
“I have always considered that Velocipede and Hes Never Been Beta (trained by Gary Hall Snr) are about on an equal par,” said Hall Jnr. “Velocipede has done good things at home, when he didn’t have the pressure of racing. He has exceptional gate speed, but he struggles a bit with the other stuff.
“Tonight, he ran a pretty good half, coming off a slow speed. He did that pretty easily, running home in 27.7sec.”
Velocipede, named after a smart pacer, trained and driven by Les Poyser more than 50 years ago, is by Fly Like An Eagle and is out of the unraced Allamerican Ingot mare Not Now Delilah, whose dam Queen Delilah raced 67 times for ten wins, 25 placings and $66,421 before being retired and then producing six winners.
The best of Queen Delilah’s progeny were Jumbo Operator (43 starts for 24 wins, nine placings and $313,175) and Getaway Plan (35 starts for four wins, eight placings and $135,549). Jumbo Operator won the Group 3 Caduceus Club Classic and the group 2 Western Gateway Pace in 2009 before winning the Group 2 Navy Cup in 2010 and the Group 3 Northam Cup in 2011.
Velocipede is also related to West Australia’s former world champion mare Daintys Daughter.
Hall Jnr went to the 2021 Perth APG yearling sale where he bid for the Fly Like An Eagle colt on behalf of Maddison Brown.
“I was bidding against Shane Young, who was having great success with the colt’s full-sister Wonderful To Fly, before the colt was knocked down to me for $42,000,” said Hall. “Maddy and Dad as well as other stable clients including Sue Beven, Danny Roberts and Gary Ralston race Velocipede in partnership.”