25 January 2018 | Ken Casellas
Promising lightly-raced four-year-old Covered N Diamonds, a costly first-up failure at Narrogin last Saturday week, has sound prospects of making amends by winning the Direct Trades Supply Pace at Gloucester Park on Saturday night.
A 7/4 on favourite at Narrogin, Covered N Diamonds overraced in the breeze and faded to finish last, 18 lengths behind the winner Hot Fraternity.
She was much more tractable when Dylan Egerton-Green handled her for trainer Skye Bond in a 2150m trial at Byford last Sunday morning. She raced in the breeze under a tight hold, a few lengths from the pacemaker Im Simply Red in the field of seven before she took the lead 300m from home and was not extended in winning narrowly from the fast-finishing Big Spending Telf. The final quarters were run in 29.4sec. and 29.1sec.
Ryan Warwick will drive Covered N Diamonds from the No. 3 barrier on the front line on Saturday night and she should be prominent. She possesses excellent gate speed, but whether she can muster sufficient pace to get past the polemarker Sheez Edgy in the early stages is problematical. However, even if Covered N Diamonds is forced to race without cover she should still prove hard to beat.
Most punters are likely to support either Covered N Diamonds (six wins from 14 starts) and the Vanessa Brockman-trained Alkiras Desire (seven wins from 21 starts) but eight-year-old Auctioneers Elsu is capable of a bold showing at her 194th start.
Auctioneers Elsu, to be driven by Jocelyn Young for Cardup owner-trainer Sarah Suvaljko, impressed on Friday of last week when she finished resolutely from seventh at the bell to be second to Real Zeal. Three starts before that Auctioneers Elsu trailed the pacemaker Maczaffair and fought on doggedly when second to that star mare.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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