Fathers and sons have a wonderful record in the time-honoured Westral August Cup and Kyle Harper has bright prospects of adding his name to the honour roll by driving the brilliant Bettors Fire to victory in the $35,000 feature event over 2536m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Harper’s father Lindsay won the August Cup with Shattering Class (twice), Ghost and Digger of Fortune and he shares the record of four wins with Phil Coulson, Lyle Lindau and Fred Kersley jun.
Kersley’s father Fred sen. won the August Cup twice, with Beverley Boy (1951) and Mercedes (1968) and his younger son Bill was successful with Mondello in 1959.
The other successful father and son combinations to have won the August Cup are Jim and Peter Schrader, Trevor and Justin Warwick, Gary Hall sen. and Gary Hall jun., Mike and Mark Reed and Kim and Justin Prentice. In total, fathers and sons have won the August Cup 27 times.
Apart from Kyle Harper aiming to join this illustrious list, Clint Hall (Indomitable) is hopeful of adding his name to the father and son August Cup winners.
Harper has Bettors Fire flying and the New Zealand-bred six-year-old simply sizzled last Friday night when he unwound a dazzling sprint to charge home from a distinct ninth and last at the bell to burst to the front at the 100m mark and score an effortless victory over the pacemaking Northview Punter, rating 1.55.2 over 2130m.
Bettors Fire is drawn out wide at barrier eight on the front line and Harper looks set to adopt similar tactics to those of last week when he restrained the gelding back to the rear at the start and relied on his sparkling finishing speed.
Bettors Fire, who has won 25 times from 60 starts and has amassed $385,552 in prizemoney, is being set for the $1.8 million TABtouch interdominion championship series at Gloucester Park and Bunbury in November and December. Harper freely admits that Bettors Fire is not at his peak and the impressive son of Bettors Delight is rapidly developing into one of Western Australia’s best championship hopes.
He is an M9-class performer and looks considerably superior to his 11 rivals. Apart from Northview Punter (M9) and This Time Dylan (M7) the other runners have much easier classifications.
Northview Punter, to be driven by Kim Prentice for Gary Hall sen., showed a welcome return to form last Friday night when he set the pace and battled on to finish second to Bettors Fire. He will start from barrier two on the back line is capable of being placed again. He started from the No. 1 barrier when he set the pace and won last year’s August Cup by four lengths from Ima Rocket Star.
Eleven-year-old Rocket Reign, trained by Debbie Padberg, will start from the No. 4 barrier on the front line. A winner of 24 races from 176 starts, he is in the twilight of his career. Four years ago, in the 2011 August Cup Rocket Reign raced in sixth position on the pegs before flying home, three wide, to be third to Lombo Navigator and Has The Answers in a thrilling three-way photo finish.
One of the fancies this year will be Our Jimmy Johnstone, a six-year-old trained by Greg and Skye Bond, who will be handled by Colin Brown, who has been successful in the August Cup with Governor Guinness in 1986 and Mister Odds On in 2009.
Our Jimmy Johnstone started equal favourite at 6/4 with Bettors Fire last Friday night when he worked hard in the breeze before wilting to eighth. His previous form was most encouraging.
Adding interest to the race will be the reappearance of Ti Amo Franco, a winner of four races earlier in the season. He has not raced since his fast-finishing victory over Tuapeka Kahu at Gloucester Park at a 1.54.7 rate over 1730m late last March. He was an all-the-way 2536m winner over Our Major Mark and Dearborn three starts before that.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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