18 June 2020 | Ken Casellas
Bindoon is a small town 84km north-east of Perth where Bernie James is the only harness racing trainer whose bonnie mare Parisian Partygirl is the toast of the town.
Six years ago James and his partner Susan Bonser planned to travel to Paris for a well-deserved holiday, but they abandoned the trip when they fell in love with a Courage Under Fire filly who was passed in after failing to reach her reserve price of $12,000 at the 2014 Gloucester Standardbred yearling sale.
After the annual sale they outlaid $12,000, plus GST, to purchase the filly they named Parisian Partygirl after their aborted holiday.
Parisian Partygirl showed early promise and at her first appearance in a trial at Byford in February 2015 she finished an encouraging second to Lightning Jolt. But soon after that the filly broke down, affected by an immature knee.
While Parisian Partygirl was unable to race as a two-year-old Bernie and Susan seized the opportunity to travel to France for their belated holiday.
It is history now that Parisian Partygirl, under the guidance of James, has developed into one of the State’s best mares who has earned $194,670 from 12 wins, 29 seconds and 19 thirds from 126 starts. She has rarely performed poorly after her sound debut when third behind Lightning Jolt at Northam in November 2015.
At Gloucester Park on Friday night Parisian Partygirl fared poorly in the random draw and will start from the outside in a field of eight in the 2130m Choices Flooring Free-For-All for mares. She has a losing sequence of 11, but outstanding efforts to finish second at her past two runs are firm indications that she has sound prospects of notching another victory.
She will be driven by Kyle Harper, who will not bustle her in the early stages before relying on her typical strong finishing burst.
“She has good gate speed, but up in class she is best suited as a sit-sprinter,” said James. “Her past two runs have been super.” Last Friday night Parisian Partygirl raced in sixth position, one-out and two-back, before finishing fast from fifth at the 250m to be second to the pacemaker Bettor Be Oscar.
A week earlier she ran home fast from sixth at the bell to be a half-head second to Runaway Three, with a final 800m in 56.8sec. Her chief rivals this week appear to be four-year-old polemarker Typhoon Tiff, Queen Shenandoah and Delightfulreaction.
Typhoon Tiff, trained and driven by Colin Brown, was an all-the-way winner over Millwood Molly and Pick My Pocket four starts ago, and at her most recent outing she led when a short half-head second to the fast-finishing Queen Shenandoah.
Chris Voak, who will handle Queen Shenandoah from barrier six, said: “She will sit and sprint and I give her a good each-way chance. She’s got good closing speed.”
Parisian Partygirl is one of two pacers trained by James, who enjoys running his 30-acre hobby farm in Bindoon. The other is Tiger Toast, a three-year-old Betterthancheddar filly who was a winner at Gloucester Park last August.
Parisian Partygirl is the ninth and last foal out of Summer Carnival, a New Zealand-bred mare who raced 47 times for seven wins, 12 placings and $35,442 in stakes. Parisian Partygirl is a full-sister to Kissed Flush (262 starts for 30 wins, 54 placings and stakes of $159,369 from 262 starts and a half-sister to Winter Retreat, who earned $416,693 from 33 wins (17 in WA and 16 in America) and 50 placings from 143 starts.
Before his successes with Parisian Partygirl, James enjoyed his previous city-class victory when 20/1 chance Bright As beat the $1.60 favourite Vintage Concerto by a head at Gloucester Park on January 5, 2007. Bright As had 89 starts for 13 wins, 15 placings and $74,645. James and Bonser also enjoyed good success with Red Ochre, who won three metropolitan-class events in a career of 98 starts for 17 wins, 38 placings and $85,497.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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