02 September 2020 | Ken Casellas
Inexperienced four-year-old Wildwest is cherry ripe for his first serious test against open-class pacers and he should emerge triumphant in the $30,000 Group 3 TABtouch York Cup over 2230m at Gloucester Park on Friday night, according to champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr.
Wildwest, prepared by Gary Hall Snr and a winner at nine of his 11 starts, will start from the No. 1 barrier and Hall jnr plans an all-the-way victory at the gelding’s second start after a lengthy spell.
“He’s been working well since his first-up win in a stand three weeks ago,” he said. “He’s a very quick horse and you would imagine he will be able to lead in his first clash with Free-For-All quality pacers.
“We treat him like a Free-For-All horse and at home he works with Chicago Bull all the time. If he sits on Bully and they run along a bit, he can get over him. This looks a perfect race for him, considering where most of the good horses are drawn, with Galactic Star, from barrier 12, likely to be out of it for a long way.”
Hall had no hesitation in electing to drive Wildwest in preference to stablemates Ideal Liner and Fake News. “We’re pretty happy with Ideal liner’s recent efforts and Fake News is flying,” he said.
Stuart McDonald will drive Ideal Liner from barrier three and Maddison Brown will handle Fake News, a brilliant winner at her past two outings, from barrier five.
Horses who have started from the prized No. 1 barrier in the past three York Cups have all been a short-priced favourite and have had mixed fortunes. Our Corelli led and won easily from Vampiro and King of Swing in last year’s York Cup, while the previous two favourites were beaten with The Trilogy finishing second to Perfect Mach in 2017 and El Jacko finishing tenth behind Maczaffair in 2018.
Galactic Star, prepared by leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond and to be driven by star reinsman Ryan Warwick, has amassed $542,062 in prizemoney from his 27 wins and 26 placings from 79 starts and he deserves plenty of respect, despite starting from the outside of the back line.
The seven-year-old Galactic Star was not extended when he led and won by more than three lengths from Im Johnny Jet and Gee Jay Kay over 2130m last Friday week.
The Giles Inwood-trained Bettor Party was a good winner over Rock Me Over and Jimmy Mach last Friday night, but he faces a sterner test against superior opposition this week when he will begin from the No. 4 barrier.
Adding interest to Friday night’s Cup will be the appearance of eight-year-old As Happy As Larry, who will be having his first start for four months. He won the Easter Cup last April for trainer-reinsman Robbie Williams and is capable of a strong effort.
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