26 April 2018 | Ken Casellas
Six-year-old Bettor Reward, a winner at his first six starts three years ago, now boasts a losing sequence of 19 but he looks set to return to winning form, judged by his splendid performance at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon.
At his third appearance for Pinjarra trainer-reinsman Shane Young, Bettor Reward started off the 40m mark in a 2116m stand in Monday’s race and impressed greatly with his powerful late burst to finish a neck second to Destined To Rule.
He was ninth at the 500m mark and went four wide on the home turn before charging home to fail narrowly. The final quarters, off the front, were run in 28.9sec. and 28.6sec. Four Sundays before that Bettor Reward impressed in winning a 2116m stand at the Pinjarra trials when he dashed over the final quarters in 27.4sec. and 28.6sec.
Interestingly, Destined To Rule who is a five-year-old half-brother to Bettor Reward and his win for trainer Sonia Zucchiatti on Monday took his record to eight wins and 15 placings from 50 starts for $69,612 in prizemoney. Destined To Rule and Bettor Reward are out of the Northern Luck mare Chemical Romance, whose dam Ferrari Trunkey raced 39 times for 22 wins, seven placings and $267,527 in stakes. Ferrari Trunkey is the dam of eight winners, including Trunkey Maseratti (85 starts for 22 wins, ten placings and $273,457).
Bettor Reward will start from the outside barrier (No. 9) in the opening race, the Westral Roller Blinds Westbred Pace, a 2130m mobile event at Gloucester Park on Friday night and he looks set to fight out the finish. He is the tightest-assessed runner in the race with an M2 classification and has the class to fully test several in-form rivals, including Lord Willoughby, Hot Fraternity and All The Whispers.
The Ross Olivieri-trained Lord Willoughby will start out wide at barrier eight and reinsman Shannon Suvaljko will be looking forward to the promising four-year-old maintaining his consistent form which has seen him have 16 starts this season for six wins, six seconds and four thirds.
Lord Willoughby was unlucky last Friday night when he raced without cover early and then enjoyed a perfect trail in the one-out, one-back position before being hampered for room until the final stages when he ran home solidly into third place behind Tisadream and All The Whispers.
Suvaljko has opted to drive Lord Willoughby in preference to All The Whispers, who was an eye-catching, fast-finishing third behind Tisadream and Lord Willoughby last week. The Mike Reed-trained All The Whispers will be handled by Dylan Egerton-Green.
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