Greg and Skye Bond, the State’s leading trainers, were shattered 12 months ago when Our Jimmy Johnstone received a fractured leg in a stable mishap and had to miss the 2015 interdominion championship series.
But now they are in a buoyant, optimistic mood and are looking forward to the eight-year-old performing strongly in the rich TABtouch inmterdominion championship series which gets under way with the opening set of heats at Gloucester Park on November 25.
Our Jimmy Johnstone will reappear after a three-month absence when Ryan Warwick drives him in the 2016 TABtouch Interdominion Begins Nov. 25 Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He will start from the outside barrier (No. 9), but has the class to overcome that disadvantage and get his championship campaign away to a flying start.
“He was set for last year’s Inters, but he got kicked in one of his front legs in the paddock and we had to tip him out for several months,” Greg Bond said. “He suffered a hairline fracture to his leg, but has made a complete recovery.”
The untimely injury kept Our Jimmy Johnstone out of action for nine months before he resumed racing in the final week of last May when he finished a close second to Mighty Flying Thomas. Our Jimmy Johnstone soon struck top form and won at three of his final four starts before going for a brief spell early in August.
“Friday night’s race is really just a start-off point heading towards the Inters,” Bond said. “We thought that we would take the softer option (contesting a C10 to C15-class event) rather than run in the open-class event.
“I don’t think we’ll come out all guns a blazing; we’ll probably let him find his feet and he can work into the race whenever Ryan thinks it is appropriate, at the 1100m or 1000m. His performance will give us a good gauge to where he’s at.
“This will be a good platform to begin his campaign. We’ll probably give him a couple of more starts before the heats. He is pretty fit and forward and I expect him to be very competitive this week. After his latest run he had a couple of weeks in the paddock and then we brought him back and worked him up, nice and slow, just to get the miles into his legs.
“He’s had a fair amount of work and his work would suggest he’s going to be right in the finish in Friday night’s race, for sure.
“If John of Arc (drawn out wide at No. 8) goes forward gets to the breeze, and they walk, then John of Arc, who is a quality horse, will be hard to beat. But if it is a genuinely-run race it will bring Our Jimmy Johnstone right into it.
“Our Jimmy Johnstone is no Lennytheshark or Hectorjayjay, but he is a horse capable of running fast times. If he is not over-taxed early in the Inters races, he should be hitting the line as well as most of the other horses.”
The injury-plagued John of Arc, trained at Herron in the South-West of the State by Clive Dalton, should be close to his peak after two excellent efforts since resuming after an eight-month absence. He raced wide early and then in the breeze when a close first-up fourth behind Ima Connoisseur on September 30 and then two weeks later he had a similar run when a well-beaten second to the brilliant Chicago Bull.
The Bonds will also be represented in Friday night’s race by Bettor Offer and Bounty Eyre and Gary Hall sen. will be looking for forward showings from his smart mares Ideal Alice and Delightful Jade.
Bond declared that Our Jimmy Johnstone was his No. 1 hope for the Inters, ahead of Simply Susational, Phoenix Warrior, Delightful Offer and Ima Connoisseur.
Ima Connoisseur notched his fifth win in a row when he gave a typical strong frontrunning performance to win at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. But Bond ranks the speedy five-year-old behind stablemates Simply Susational and Delightful Offer as an Inters prospect.
“Ima Connoisseur is still developing as a horse and at this stage the other ones are a bit more hardened and seasoned. However, he is improving all the time and with his gate speed he’ll definitely be able to be up there in the firing line. But a lot depends on whether he has the mental toughness at the moment to handle racing against the best.”
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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