Shez Our Eye Candy has not raced for ten months, but Coolup trainer David Young is confident the filly will prove hard to beat when she starts from the prized No. 1 barrier in the Head of the Family Matua Special Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
His confidence was boosted when he drove Shez Our Eye Candy to an all-the-way win in a 2185m trial at Pinjarra on Sunday morning.
“She’s a bit green and didn’t like leading very much,” Young said. “I’ve changed the gear because she wants to get down the track. I had block blinkers on her in the trial and I think that the problem was that she couldn’t see the horses outside of her.
“When the horse who was on her back pulled out and put three quarters of a length on her she got going and kicked back and won the trial. I’ve also put a Murphy blind on the near side to stop her from running down, and she’ll have a Dolly on the outside. These changes should sharpen her up.”
Shez Our Eye Candy won the trial by a nose from Dai Ben De, rating 2.3.8, with a final quarter in 29sec. At her previous trial the previous Sunday she led early and then sat behind the pacemaker The Shadow Knows, who went on to win easily, with Shez Our Eye Candy a distant fourth in a field of four.
“She hung down badly and lost her momentum,” Young said. “However, she still ran home in about 58sec. and now I hope her problem of hanging has been cured.”
Young started this week in style when he produced Bush Chook in fine fettle for an easy all-the-way win at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. This ended the five-year-old’s losing sequence of 17.
Shez Our Eye Candy was purchased for $4500 by John Hope at Rob Tomlinson’s dispersal sale about 11 or 12 weeks ago. The filly had four starts at Pinjarra as an early three-year-old last September and October, with her best effort a first-up third behind Jaxine Jones.
She is well bred, being by champion sire Bettors Delight and out of the Courage Under Fire mare Priscilla Rocks, who raced 31 times for eight wins and ten placings for earnings of $115,710. She finished a neck second to Silver Tail Adda in the group 1 Golden Slipper in July 2007 and was a close third behind Ruby Dazzler in the group 1 WA Oaks in 2008.
The main dangers to Shez Our Eye Candy on Friday night are likely to be Gunna Get Lucky, Delightful Days, Parisian Partygirl and Melimac.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
