Exciting newcomer Im Full of Excuses should continue his rapid rise by proving the bet of the night at Gloucester Park on Friday night when he contests the $23,000 Check In With TABtouch Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
A convincing victory would see the highly-rated Jeremes Jet five-year-old move a step closer to running in the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup in January.
Im Full of Excuses, a winner at seven of his 21 starts in New Zealand, has been in superb form for eight-time premiership trainer Ross Olivieri, with his six WA starts producing a first-up failure when he met with interference and had a torrid run and then five effortless wins in a row.
Those five wins were all in stands, but the gelding will have no difficulty in returning to mobile racing. Olivieri said that the standing-start runs were part of the gelding’s education. “And good stakemoney tempted me to run him in two $30,000 events at his latest outings — when he won the Kalgoorlie Cup (beating Better Scoot) and the York Cup at Northam (beating This Time Dylan),” he said.
“His greatest strengths are his strength and his speed — he’s got both. I think he is up to Pacing Cup class, but we’ll let him tell us where we need to go. I nominated him for the Inters, but withdrew him when I considered he was too green and too inexperienced. I didn’t think he was ready for the grind of the Inters. And now the seasoning process has started.”
Olivieri will also be represented by Red Salute, who is handily drawn at barrier three. Red Salute led when a sound second to Delightful Offer over 2100m at Bunbury on Tuesday night. He will be driven by Chris Voak, who could be involved in an early battle for the lead with Courage Tells (barrier one) and Mighty Flying Thomas (two).
Stuart McDonald will handle Mighty Flying Thomas, who heads Byford trainer Peter Anderson’s three-prong attack on the race. Anderson’s other runners are Bronze Seeker, who will be driven by Luke McCarthy from barrier five, and Lisharry, who will be driven by Mark Purdon and faces a stern test from the outside barrier.
Courage Tells, having his second start for leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond, caught the eye last Friday night when he broke after the start in a stand and was ninth at the bell before running on to be a close fifth behind Major Rush when he was hampered for room in the home straight.
The nine-year-old has good gate speed as he revealed when he began fast from the No. 8 barrier and set the pace before finishing a neck second to stablemate Phoenix warrior over 2536m on July 29.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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