07 October 2021 | Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
When Know When To Run goes on to the track at Gloucester Park on Friday night to contest the Get The Taste of WA @ Beau Rivage Pace it will be 658 days ago since his previous outing, when he ran home solidly from eighth at the bell to finish fifth behind Shockwave in the Golden Nugget Championship in December 2019.
Soon after that encouraging performance Know When To Run suffered a tendon injury, and he has made a full recovery and is ready to perform strongly.
Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice tested him in a 2185m trial at Pinjarra three Wednesdays ago when ace reinsman Gary Hall jnr was happy with his effort in finishing fourth behind Chance Eclipse in a field of seven.
Know When To Run was not extended in racing in third position in an Indian file trial. He was ten lengths behind the leader Mad Magic at the bell before finishing strongly to be fourth, two lengths behind the winner, who rated 1.59.
“The trial was good, and he made up good ground late,” said Hall. “I didn’t knock him about and he could have won quite easily. However, it is a big step up this week at his first start for such a long time. He has very good gate speed, and I’ll see what Justin wants to do at the start.”
Know When To Run, a son of American stallion Roll With Joe, showed plenty of promise in his first couple of preparations, with his 15 starts producing six wins and six placings.
There is little doubt that the five-year-old Know When To Run (who will start from the No. 4 barrier) will face serious opposition from the race-hardened three-year-old Otis, who is in top form and has netted $81,420 from eight wins, eight seconds and two thirds from 27 starts. Both pacers were bred in WA by Steve Johnson.
Otis maintained his excellent form when he trailed the pacemaker Stamford before finishing determinedly with a three-wide burst to finish a half-head second to Jumpingjackmac over 2130m last Friday night.
Otis is favourably drawn at barrier No. 2 and Dylan Egerton-Green is expected to use the colt’s good gate speed in a bid to get to the front and then dictate terms.
Hall gave punters a valuable lead by choosing to drive Know When To Run in preference to the in-form Michael Young pacers Doc Holliday (barrier eight) and Zazu (barrier nine). Doc Holliday will be driven by Chris Voak, with Maddison Brown in the sulky behind Zazu.
The New Zealand-bred Doc Holliday has impressed with his first four starts in Australia producing a first-up second to Pontevivo, followed by an easy win at Northam when he covered a lot of extra ground, a narrow all-the-way victory over 2130m at Gloucester Park and another good frontrunning win over 2536m on the same track.
Zazu, a former Victorian performer, has had three starts in WA for two wins and two seconds. He raced wide early and then in the breeze when an excellent second to Euphoria over 1730m last Friday night.
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