25 October 2019 | Tim Walker
The path to the Golden Nugget reaches a pivotal point at Gloucester Park on Friday night, with three key chances for the four-year-old feature set to do battle in the Westral Pace (2536m).
Bletchley Park, Gee Jay Kay and Wildwest will face off in what shapes as the most significant race on the 10 race card.
Wildwest kept his unbeaten record in tact with a strong 5m win last Friday night, but it wasn’t without a minor scare as stablemate Robbie Easton made a bold bid for victory around the home turn.
“He won pretty well,” Hall Snr told GPTV Powered By RWWA.
“He will definitely improve from the run.
“It is a jump up in grade for him because he hasn’t met a real good horse yet and he’s going to meet Gee Jay Kay.
“I think with the barrier draw advantage we can take advantage of that.
“He’s got speed and got stamina, but winning Golden Nuggets is a different story.”
The son of Raging Bull looms as the Gary Hall Snr stable’s best chance for December’s Group 1 event, with WA Derby winner Major Trojan expected to be sidelined for at least the next six months.
Wildwest was the big winner when the barrier draw was released yesterday, drawing barrier two inside Bletchley Park (three) and Gee Jay Kay (five).
Mike Reed’s Bletchley Park returns to Gloucester Park for the first time since September 27 this week where he will look to take his record to 11 wins from 19 starts.
With both Major Trojan and Franco Edward out of Nugget calculations, Bletchley Park is the sole placegetter from the WA Derby still in the hunt for the feature race.
Bletchley Park made a brief appearance in the latter part of August and September, where he won three of his four starts.
Gee Jay Kay looms as the outsider of three runners this Friday night in what will be his first run for the Ross Olivieri stable.
The gelding was unplaced in the Derby earlier this year, but showed he was up to the best in his age group with a second in the Westbred Classic and won six of his last nine starts as a three-year-old.
Gee Jay Kay had two trials for Olivieri earlier this month at Byford and pleased Olivieri’s stable representative Jemma Hayman said the whole stable couldn’t wait to unveil the latest stable acquisition.
“We’re all looking forward to seeing Gee Jay Kay go around next Friday,” she told TABradio.
“He’s an exciting horse.
“He trialled super on Sunday at Byford.
“He’s got an exciting campaign ahead of him.”
Last year’s Golden Nugget winner Ana Malak makes his return to racing in Friday night’s Howard Porter Memorial (2130m), where he will start from barrier seven.
Ana Malak’s stablemate Vampiro looms as the one to beat in the Free-For-All event, having drawn barrier one.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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