01 February 2018 | Ken Casellas
Waterloo trainer Vanessa Brockman has Alkiras Desire racing in fine fettle and the five-year-old mare looks set to chalk up her eighth win from only 23 starts when she contests the $18,000 Worldwide West Perth Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Alkiras Desire put the writing on the wall last Saturday night when she was ninth at the bell before storming home to finish a close second to Dame Puissant. That followed stout-hearted efforts when third behind Handsandwheels at Bunbury and third to Dior Mia More at Gloucester Park.
She will start from the No. 4 barrier on the front line on Friday night and ace reinsman Chris Lewis should have her in a prominent position throughout the 2130m event.
Leading reinsman Shannon Suvaljko gave punters a lead when he opted to drive Lady Azalea in preference to Our Jeremes Gem, who impressed two starts ago with a fast-finishing second to Kerrin Joseph at Gloucester Park. Lady Azalea, trained by Matt Scott, will start from the No. 6 barrier. She worked hard without cover before winning narrowly from Alluring Attitude over 2030m at Busselton two starts ago. Our Jeremes Gem will be handled by Callan Suvaljko from the outside barrier (No. 9).
Dame Puissant, who was eighth at the bell and went five wide approaching the home turn, charged home to win from Alkiras Desire last Saturday night and she gets a good chance to notch her 12th win from 46 starts when she starts from barrier seven in a field of eight in the 2130m first heat of the Worldwide Malaga Lewis Pace on Friday night.
Henley Brook trainer-reinsman Robbie Williams is expected to adopt similar tactics this week and save Dame Puissant for a spirited finishing burst. There is likely to be plenty of early pace with an anticipated battle for the role of pacemaker between Tajies Girl (barrier No. 2) and Mon Lillies (eight).
Tajies Girl (Gary Hall jun.) and Mon Lillies (Kyle Harper) are excellent frontrunners. Tajies Girl led and won from Gotta Go Gabbana over 2130m two starts ago before she started from the outside of the back line and was forced to cover a lot of extra ground before finishing eighth behind Rich Yankee at Northam on Tuesday of last week.
Mon Lillies, trained at Boyanup by James Sortras, possesses sparkling gate speed and Harper is likely to attempt to steal a march on his rivals by getting a flying start. Mon Lillies has led and won from barriers No. 4 and No. 1 at Pinjarra at her past two outings, scoring from Twentynine Twelve and Major Stare and from Copagrin and Hindu Kumara.
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