26 April 2018 | Ken Casellas
Mt Helena trainer Ray Williams declared that Millview Sienna would be driven “tough” in a bold bid to complete a winning hat-trick by outstaying her rivals in the $25,000 Westral Venetian And Honeycomb Blinds The Johnson Final at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“She’s a big, strong mare who should run a big race if she brings her game like she has on the past two Fridays,” he said. “She has drawn barrier six and I’d say that Browny (reinsman Colin Brown) will go forward with her. There’s nothing else we can do; there’s no point in going back.”
Millview Sienna, a New Zealand-bred five-year-old, has won at ten of her 33 starts and looks set for a bright future. Her run this week will be her fifth outing after a spell. She raced five times for three wins in her previous preparation and Williams said that the mare had come back bigger and stronger in her current preparation.
“There’s a few little things I’ve learnt from her and in this preparation she wears blocks which make her more tractable and we’ve taken the head check off,” Williams said.
There were excuses for Millview Sienna’s unplaced efforts at her first two starts in this campaign before she struck top form with strong wins at her next two starts.
Millview Sienna made the most of the No. 1 barrier when she gave a bold frontrunning display to win from Chevrons Champion and Tajies Girl last Friday night, rating 1.57.1 over the 2130m journey. She started out wide at barrier seven the previous week when she pulled hard in the breeze outside the pacemaker Nothingbutadream before forging to the front 600m from home and winning at a 1.56.5 rate from Bettor Boa.
Brown said that Millview Sienna’s latest two runs were “extra good” and that she should prove hard to beat on Friday night. He said that if he was unable to send Millview Sienna to the lead in the first lap that he would not be concerned at working in the breeze, providing she settled and did not over race.
In an even field on Friday night, Mary Catherine, My Platinum Belle and Chevrons Champion are sure to be fancied.
The Andrew de Campo-trained Mary Catherine is a smart frontrunner and reinsman Aiden de Campo is expected to maker a spirited bid to get to an early lead from the No. 2 barrier. The Justin Prentice-trained My Platinum Belle (Gary Hall jun.) will start from barrier four and is sure to be prominent. She led and was not extended in winning, second-up, last Friday week.
Chevrons Champion will be driven by Chris Lewis from the No. 1 barrier and has sound prospects of ending a losing sequence of 13. She has been placed at each of her past five starts and is due for a change of fortune.
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