10 July 2015
by Ken Casellas
Highly-promising New Zealand-bred two-year-old Sprinter is poised to warm up for the $125,000 Golden Slipper Stakes on Friday week by winning the $17,500 TABtouch Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park tonight.
He will reappear after a two-month absence when he starts from barrier one and Nathan Turvey will be looking for an all-the-way win
Turvey drove the Mach Three gelding when he dashed over the final 400m section in 27.8sec. and won a 2185m trial from Not Small at Pinjarra on Sunday morning.
Sprinter is owned and trained by Gary Elson, who was pleased with the first-up effort of Ideal Tyson, who looks certain to be a warm favourite for the Golden Slipper after his easy first-up win over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Monday afternoon to improve his record to eight wins from nine starts.
Sprinter should win from the Phil Costello-trained Anime and trainer Glenn Elliott’s pair of Soho Wall Street and Soho Wolverine. Anime trailed the pacemaking Ideal Tyson when a sound second to Ideal Tyson on Monday, while Soho Wall Street was a winner over Rocknroll Whitby at Narrogin two starts ago and Soho Wolverine finished second to Rich Yankee in the Pearl Classic at Bunbury two starts ago.
Cyamach to make his Australian debut
New Zealand-bred five-year-old Cyamach will drop considerably in class when he makes his Australian debut in the first heat of the Del Basso Smallgoods Chandon Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The gelding, who is prepared at Serpentine by premier trainer Gary Hall sen., will start from barrier two on the back line in the 2130m event restricted to M1-class pacers and should fight out the finish with Bettor Party, Alongcomesdylan, Ohoka Cooper and Close To Cullen.
At his most recent appearance Cyamach lined up against several of the best open-class performers in New Zealand when he started in the group 1 $238,000 Auckland Cup at Alexandra Park on March 6. He revealed excellent gate speed before racing four back on the pegs and finishing eighth in the field of ten. But he finished just five lengths behind the winner Christen Me, who beat another superstar in Adore Me by a nose, rating 1.55.5 over the 2700m journey. Another star pacer Ohoka Punter was third.
“I’m a little disappointed that he didn’t draw the front line because he’s a bit hard to drive,” Hall said. “He’s got a bit of a head of steam and gets on the bit. And with not a quick beginner drawn in front of him is a bit of a worry as well.
“But he’s going to be hard to beat; his work has been good enough. I don’t think that he’s over brave, but he’s pretty quick.”
Cyamach has had 45 starts for ten wins and 14 placings and $174,133 in stakes. He is closely related to Maheer Lord, winner of the WA Pacing Cup at Gloucester Park in January 2006 after winning the Media Guild Cup and Parliamentarians Cup the previous year. He also won 11 races in New Zealand and 20 in America before being retired with earnings of $515,470 from 34 wins and 46 placings from 197 starts. Cyamach’s great granddam Fern Glen produced Maheer Lord.
The Dylan Quadrio-trained Alongcomesdylan warmed up for Friday night’s event in good style when he gave a bold frontrunning performance to win from Shardons Rocket and Rocky Marciano over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Monday afternoon. From the prized No. 1 barrier again, he looks the likely leader and will have plenty of admirers.
Mark Reed gave punters a strong lead when he opted to drive Bettor Party for Darling Downs trainer Eric Chabros in preference to Close To Cullen, who is prepared by his father Mike.
Reed drove Bettor Party when the five-year-old started off 30m and dashed to the front in the middle stages before winning easily from Major Rush over 2503m at Gloucester Park last Saturday night. That was his twelfth win from 67 starts.
Reed drove Close To Cullen to an all-the-way win at Gloucester Park four starts ago (last October). He also drove the gelding at his first two starts after a spell last months for a good third at Northam and an encouraging fourth behind Waylade at Pinjarra. Clint Kimes will replace Reed in the sulky behind Close To Cullen, a pacer he has driven to victory four times.
Smart four-year-old Ohoka Cooper has been placed for trainer-reinsman Kade Howson at his first two runs after a spell and will be fancied, despite his outside draw.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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