Star pacer Bettors Fire is on the verge of creating history by becoming the first pacer to win the time-honoured Navy Cup for the second time, according to the eight-year-old’s trainer-reinsman Kyle Harper.
Harper has the New Zealand-bred gelding in tip-top condition for $35,000 Navy Cup over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night. The group 3 feature event has been run 45 times and no pacer has been successful twice.
Harper trained and drove Bettors Fire to an all-the-way victory over Ima Rocket Star in the 2536m Navy Cup in October 2013. That was Bettors Fire’s first win in a metropolitan-class race.
Bettors Fire has set the pace and won at each of his past three starts, over 2536m and 2130m (twice) at Gloucester Park. However, he is awkwardly drawn at barrier seven on the front line on Friday night. And several of his rivals have sparkling gate speed.
“This is a very nice field, containing several very nice horses,” Harper said. “I’m hoping Bettors Fire can get across and find the top again. However, I’ll be keeping my options open. There is no plan to cut the ribbons and come out guns ablazing.
“But he’s got that natural gate speed that enables him to roll forward and make some ground pretty quickly. Whether horses on his inside will hand up is open to question.
“The great thing about my horse is that he’s so versatile and has so many strings to his bow. We can leave our options open; we can roll forward and we can go back and sit him up. He’s not a one-trick pony and can win from any position. It would be nice to win another Navy Cup, a race my Dad (Lindsay) won behind Digger of Fortune in 2003.”
Harper said that Bettors Fire had thrived since winning the Spring Pace from Copagrin and Libertybelle Midfrew last Friday week.
“He did it easily and got a nice cheap run before hitting the line strongly after a final quarter in 27.2sec.” he said. “Touch wood, everything is going really well with him. Thankfully, things have gone really smoothly and he’s had some pretty easy runs with some very cheap early sectionals.
“I’d say that his best run in four starts in this campaign was his first-up effort when he finished powerfully from well back to be a nose second to Cyamach in fast time over 1730m.”
Harper is realistic enough to concede that Friday night’s race will be no walk in the park for Bettors Fire, a winner of 30 races and $527,152 in prizemoney. The gelding will need to be close to his peak to defeat the brilliant Elegant Christian and the highly-regarded Beaudiene Boaz.
Clive Dalton, trainer of Elegant Christian, declared the lightly-raced six-year-old would go forward from his outside barrier (No. 9 on the front line) and was ready to run a super race.
“He’s a genuine winning chance,” Dalton said. “There is a bit of speed on his inside, but we’ll definitely go forward. It’s no good going back over 2130m which is his pet distance.”
Elegant Christian, a winner at 19 of his 35 starts, was a heavily backed 3/1 on favourite from barrier one when he reappeared after an eleven-week absence last Friday week. But Elegant Christian galloped badly at the start before making up a great deal of lost ground to finish seventh, just over four lengths behind the winner Bettors Fire. Clint Hall did not knock Elegant Christian about and the pacer went to the line without Hall releasing the ear plugs.
“It was a disaster, but it was a great run,” said Dalton. “He pulled up super and his work has been good.”
Beaudiene Boaz, trained by Gary Hall sen., will start out wide at barrier eight on Friday night and the five-year-old’s many admirers will be looking forward to the stallion returning to top form after disappointing unplaced efforts at his past three outings.
Oakford trainer Ross Olivieri said that the Cup was far from a foregone conclusion and he said that ideal barriers would suit his runners Red Salute and Our Blackbird.
Red Salute (Chris Voak) will start from the No. 1 barrier, with Our Blackbird at No. 2. Red Salute has a losing sequence of 20 and Our Blackbird’s losing run stands at 18.
“I consider Our Blackbird has more of a winning chance than Red Salute,” Olivieri said. “They both get out quickly and are capable of leading. Red Salute led and beat Our Blackbird on the track this morning (Tuesday), but I still think Our Blackbird is the better of my two runners.
“Our Blackbird couldn’t get clear when an unlucky fifth behind Bettors Fire last Friday week and he had no luck when fifth behind Phoenix Warrior at his previous start.”
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