24 October 2018 | Ken Casellas
Western Australia’s superstar pacer Chicago Bull will break fresh ground when he makes his first appearance in a standing-start event, in a $17,000 stand over 2200m at Auckland’s Alexandra Park on Friday night.
The champion six-year-old, to be driven by Gary Hall Jnr, looks vastly superior to his six rivals and should notch his 40th victory at his 61st start in a race.
Chicago Bull will start from the maximum back mark of 20m, with his chief rivals Lets Elope and Jacks Legend the two off the 10m line. Chicago Bull is a well-behaved and laid-back character who has begun smoothly in his only two appearances in standing-start trials and Hall is confident the brilliant gelding will be on his best behaviour behind the barrier strands.
This will be a valuable lead-up for Chicago Bull before he contests the $800,000 New Zealand Cup, a stand over 3200m at Addington in Christchurch on Tuesday November 13. Lets Elope and Jacks Legend are also nominated for the big race.
One of Chicago Bull’s toughest opponents in the New Zealand Cup will be Tiger Tara, who led all the way and beat Chicago Bull into second place in the 2200m Victoria Cup at Melton two Saturdays ago.
Lets Elope is a ten-year-old in the twilight of his career of 158 starts for 25 wins and 45 placings for earnings of $559,129, while five-year-old Jacks Legend has raced 28 times for six wins and 12 placings for stakes of $329,131.
Lets Elope and Jacks Legend clashed in a 2700m stand at Alexandra Park on October 12 when Lets Elope, a 16/1 chance off 10m, raced in third place on the pegs for the first lap before dashing to the front and going on to win at a 2.1.6 rate from the fast-finishing Jacks Legend. The final 800m was covered in 55.4sec. and the last 400m in 27.5sec.
This ended a losing sequence of 33 fort Lets Elope, whose previous victory was in a $20,000 Free-For-All over 2190m at Mildura on April 8, 2017.
Jacks Legend has a losing sequence of ten, with his most recent victory being in a 2700m stand at Alexandra Park in October last year. Two starts before that, Jacks Legend won the Group 1 Emerald for three-year-old colts and geldings, starting at 45/1 and beating hot favourite Ultimate Machete.
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