18 June 2020 | Ken Casellas
Star reinsman Chris Voak has established a reputation in recent years of winning the final race at Gloucester Park meetings and punters should rally to support him when he drives speedy Black Jack Baby in the eleventh event, the Westsired Pace for two-year-old fillies, on Friday night.
“Black Jack Baby is a standout filly and she is my best drive on the program,” Voak declared.
Black Jack Baby, bred, owned and trained by Shane Quadrio, is favourably drawn at barrier two in the field of nine in the 2130m event. Her six starts have produced five wins and a close second placing.
At her first appearance for two and a half months Black Jack Baby raced in third position in an Indian file affair of five runners last Friday week and caused an upset when she sprinted brilliantly over the final 400m in 26.9sec. to win by a head from the hot favourite Talks Up A Storm, with Powerplay in third place.
“She sat three wide for the final 400m and that was the impressive thing. The leader is a very good colt and he had every chance. Shane told me that Black Jack Baby has got faster since her break. I always knew she was a good sprint horse. The fact that she led in races was because she had the gate speed. However, I always thought she would be a better sit and sprint horse.”
Aiden de Campo, who is driving in dashing style, has seven drives on the program. He said not one of his drives was a certain winner, but reckoned most had fair each-way prospects, given a little bit of luck.
He leant towards Bettor Be Oscar (race seven), Blue Chip Adda (race five), Walsh (race three), Baylan Jett (race four) and Keptain Courageous (race six) as his best prospects.
Carter Micheal, who has a combined losing margin of 154.8 metres from his past four starts (for a twelfth placing, an eleventh and two tenths), will be one of the fancies for the first event, the TABtouch Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Trained by Nathan Turvey, the New Zealand-bred six-year-old, is ideally drawn at barrier two in the 2130m event. He will be driven by Gary Hall Jnr, who said: “On his run two starts ago when a fading tenth behind Runaway Three, you couldn’t suggest him at all. He sat one-one and dropped out.
“Nathan said he expects the horse to improve. He said that he probably had him a bit far off the mark than what he thought. He drove him last week to see where he was at. He reckons he’ll be a lot better this week. It’s a decent draw, and as long as Nathan is right, he’ll be in the mix.”
Hall said that he really fancies Robbie Easton in race four in which he will start out wide from barrier eight. “He won with his head on his chest last week,” he said.
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