Equine millionaire Chicago Bull, whose ambitious program next season includes the Victoria Cup, New Zealand Cup, Inter Dominion championship, Fremantle Cup and WA Pacing Cup, looks set to continue his dominance of local feature events by winning the $25,000 August Cup over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The star five-year-old has the class to overcome an awkward barrier (No. 6) and prove the master of his six rivals and give Hall of Fame trainer Gary Hall Snr a record sixth victory in the August Cup which was first run in 1950 when Doug Booth drove Lily Girl to victory at a 2.18.2 rate.
Hall trained and drove Zakara to wins in the August Cup in 1992, 1993 and 1994 and was also successful with Im Themightyquinn in 2010 and Northview Punter in 2014 when those pacers were handled by his son Gary, who also won the 2013 August Cup with the Stephen Reed-trained Uppy Son.
Hall has also prepared the second and third placegetters in the past two August Cups, with Run Oneover and Cyamach being placed behind Bettors Fire in 2016 and Ideal Alice and Run Oneover finishing behind the $96.10 outsider Jambiani 12 months ago.
Hall Jnr will drive Chicago Bull, with Stuart McDonald, who brought Jambiani home with a rattling run from fifth and three back on the pegs at the bell to defeat Ideal Alice and the pacemaker Run Oneover, engaged for Runrunjimmydunn. Nathan Turvey will be in the sulky behind the Hall stable’s third Cup runner My Hard Copy.
Eight-year-old My Hard Copy, a dual WA Pacing Cup winner and conqueror of the mighty Lazarus in the Fremantle Cup last summer, resumed after an absence of just over four months in fine style last Friday night when he gave a bold frontrunning display to win convincingly from Galactic Star and The Bucket List over 2536, with final quarters in 28.4sec. and 27.2sec.
Galactic Star fought on solidly after racing without cover for more than two laps after starting from the outside barrier. He is favourably drawn at No. 3 this week and Ryan Warwick is likely to consider the prospect of leading.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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