Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Rising star trainer Michael Young makes no secret that he considers Eighteen Carat the best pacing mare in Western Australia, and he has high hopes the five-year-old will give him his first Group 1 victory by proving too smart for her rivals in the $100,000 Barbagallo Norms Daughter Classic at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“This will be the first decent crack I’ve had at winning a Group 1 race,” he said.
Eighteen Carat, to be driven, as usual, by Gary Hall Jnr, has drawn rather awkwardly out wide at barrier seven. But the New Zealand-bred five-year-old who has won at six of her past eight starts, has the ability to overcome this disadvantage.
After Eighteen Carat had set the pace and strolled to victory over Bettor Get It On and Booraa last Friday night Hall said: “She is one of the few mares capable of winning from any barrier.”
It is most unlikely that Eighteen Carat will be able to burst straight to the front, considering that there many of her rivals possess excellent gate speed, particularly the mares drawn barriers one, two, three, four and five.
Purest Silk (barrier one) has led and won at Pinjarra (twice) and at Gloucester Park and Bunbury; Fifty Five Reborn (barrier two) has led and won ten times; Miss Limelight (barrier three) has won four times after setting the pace; Vivere Damore (barrier four) is an all-the-way winner six times: and Star Of Diamonds (barrier five) has won five times after leading.
However, perhaps the greatest danger to Eighteen Carat will be the Jocelyn Young-trained and driven The Amber Hare, who will start from the No. 2 barrier on the back line, immediately behind the fast-starting Fifty Five Reborn.
The Amber Hare is in sparkling form and looks set to fight out the finish. She warmed up for this week’s race with a brilliant victory at a 1.56.7 rate over 2130m last Friday week when she started from the outside of the back line and surged forward to take up the running on her way to winning easily from the WA Oaks winner Taking The Miki.
Booraa, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, ran a splendid trial for this week’s event when she raced three back on the pegs before sprinting home strongly to finish third behind Eighteen Carat last week.
The Bond stable has been prominent in the recent Norms Daughter Classic events with Ryan Warwick driving Our Alfie Romeo from barrier one to an all-the-way victory over Arma Indie in 2019 before Our Alfie Romeo finished second to stablemate Wainui Creek in 2020. And then Wainui Creek led from the No. 1 barrier and finished third behind Born To Boogie and Balcatherine last November.
Born To Boogie, trained by Ross Olivieri and to be driven by Chris Lewis, faces a stern test this week after drawing the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line. She resumed after a spell last Friday night when she started from the inside of the back line and trailed the pacemaker Eighteen Carat before being hampered for room until late when a close-up seventh behind that mare.