Ken Casellas | Photo: Gloucester Park Harness Racing
Bunbury trainer Sarah Wall continues to enjoy the long drive to Perth, and she has the distinction of having one starter at each of the past three Friday night Gloucester Park meetings — for three wins.
Her purple patch continued on Friday night when an aggressive drive by Nathan Turvey paved the way for Alta Rhett’s all-the-way victory in the 2536m WA Harness Racing Association Pace.
Alta Rhett led when a winner as a $3.30 favourite a fortnight earlier, and then the following Friday Wall’s promising three-year-old filly Dontbesillychilli was the $1.30 favourite when she set the pace and scored an easy victory.
Alta Rhett was overlooked by most punters on Friday night when he started from barrier No. 4 and was fourth favourite at $11.50, with most punters pinning their faith on either the polemarker Medieval Man ($1.85) or Boom Time ($2.40) from barrier two.
But Turvey seized the initiative and used Alta Rhett’s excellent gate speed by dashing the six-year-old straight to the front. Alta Rhett settled nicely in the lead and after quarters of 32.2sec., 31.6sec. and 30.4sec., he gave his rivals little chance by sprinting over the final 400m in 27.2sec. He won by a length and a half from Boom Time, with Medieval Man a half-length farther back in third place.
“We probably caught a few people by surprise by leading tonight,” said Wall. “After this win it probably is going to be a bit tougher for Alta Rhett because he now goes up to conditioned races.”
Alta Rhett and Dontbesillychilli are both out of former smart pacer Justlikechocolate, who raced 48 times for 13 wins, 19 placings and “188,937 in prizemoney. Alta Rhett’s win on Friday night boosted his earnings to $160,519 from 13 wins and 25 placings.
Justlikechocolate died last year, and Wall said that she and her husband Chris were fortunate to have an unraced two-year-old gelding (by Sweet Lou) out of Justlikechocolate.