Milestones aplenty at Gloucester Park

Gifted harness racing driver Maddison Brown produced a typically cool, confident and calculating performance to land her 200th winner, scoring a stylish victory in the 2536m Steel Blue Boots Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

She drove with her usual serene elegance to bring $5.40 chance Faster Than Dad (Alta Christiano) home with a well-timed burst to beat $16 chance Pocket The Cash by a length, with $81 outsider Ohoka Titan running on from eleventh at the bell to be a distant third.

The 26-year-old Brown was having her first drive behind Faster Than Dad, a lightly-raced four-year-old prepared by master trainer Gary Hall snr.

Faster Than Dad began from barrier two on the back line, with the $2.20 favourite Master Publisher beginning from barrier four on the front line.

Master Publisher raced three wide early and then in the breeze outside the pacemaker and $4 second fancy Soho Gigolo, with Brown quickly guiding Faster Than Dad into the favourable one-out and one-back position. Master Publisher eventually got to the front 650m from home, but he was a spent force as Brown sent Faster Than Dad into the lead with 370m to travel.

FASTER THAN DAD REPLAY

Faster Than Dad is the third foal out of the Bettors Delight mare Slick Bird, who earned $89,999 from ten wins and nine placings from 34 starts. Faster Than Dad is a full-brother to While They Pray (38 starts for 16 wins, 11 placings and $165,988) and a half-brother to Slick Artist (93 starts for 18 wins, 29 placings and $256,184).

Faster Than Dad looks set for many more wins and improving on his record of six wins, three placings and $34,008 in stakes from 16 starts.

Egerton-Green’s milestone

Accomplished reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green celebrated his 800th winner in the sulky in spectacular fashion at Gloucester Park on Friday night when Zephyra (Sweet Lou) flew home from a seemingly impossible position in fourth place at the 100m mark to get up and win the $20,250 Spurs Champion League Pace for two-year-old fillies.

Zephyra, an $8 chance at her first appearance for 12 weeks, began from the outside barrier (No. 8) on the front line, settled in ninth position and was sixth in the one-wide line at the bell.

She improved to be fourth on the home turn and was still fourth at the 100m mark before charging home to win by 2m from Spiritofanangel ($4), with a head to the $2.05 favourite Between Two Thorns in third place.

ZEPHYRA REPLAY

“I thought that Between Two Thorns had got far enough away and I didn’t really give her a chance of winning,” said the 29-year-old Egerton-Green. “But to Zephyra’s credit, she kept fighting, and the wet track probably helped her.”

Zephyra’s win completed a double for Egerton-Green, who was successful with To Fast To Serious (Shadow Play) earlier in the night. He maintained his rich vein of form with a double at Northam on Saturday night when he won with General Jolt ($6.50) and Seeryanfly ($1.36). Those four winners have taken Egerton-Green’s tally for the season to 71 wins to be in third place behind Shannon Suvaljko (80) and Gary Hall jnr (77) on the WA drivers’ premiership table.

Between Two Thorns, also resuming after a spell, began from barrier seven and enjoyed an ideal passage in the one-out, one-back position (followed by Zephyra), before Aiden de Campo set her alight and she burst to the front 520m from home.

Between Two Thorns was hailed as the winner when she led by three lengths on the home turn and was still leading by two lengths at the 100m. But she wilted in the final stages.

Zephyra was bred by Northam trainer Jesse Moore and his wife Maree, and they race her in partnership with their daughter Hayley. She is the first foal out of Moore’s former champion mare Tricky Styx, who amassed $460,548 in prizemoney from 22 wins and 16 placings from 79 starts.

For complete race results, click here.

by Ken Casellas, for Gloucester Park