Another first for Hall

A fortnight after becoming the first driver to land seven winners at a harness racing meeting in Western Australia, champion reinsman Gary Hall jnr chalked up another milestone when he prepared his first metropolitan-class winner as a trainer at Gloucester Park on Friday night (Nov. 4).

The 40-year-old Hall has concentrated on driving throughout his career and is just starting to get the feel of preparing pacers for racing.

Armed Reactor (Auckland Reactor) was having his second start for Hall (after a sound second to Prince Of Pleasure at Pinjarra last Monday week) when he began from barrier five in the 2130m Sky Racing Pace on Friday night.

Armed Reactor was third favourite at $7.10 and after racing wide early during a fast lead time of 36.6sec. he surged to the front after 500m and enjoyed his pacemaking role as he reeled off quarters of 30sec., 29.6sec., 28.5sec. and 29.6sec. to win easily by two lengths from the fast-finishing $4.60 chance Pontevivo, rating 1.56.7.

“It’s harder to drive,” said Hall. “All the trainers talk about how much pressure they’re under, but training is the easy part; driving is the harder part.”

Armed Reactor, a New Zealand-bred seven-year-old, has had a chequered career, and his record is quite confusing. Official records indicate that the Auckland Reactor gelding has had 19 starts for five wins and four placings.

But, in fact, he has raced 38 times and has finished first on six occasions. He was registered in New Zealand as a chestnut, but in WA he is registered as a bay gelding.

Armed Reactor has started nine times in WA, but his record shows that he has had only seven starts for three wins and two placings. Explaining this is the fact that he was disqualified from his first two starts in the State, when finishing seventh behind El Chema at Pinjarra on November 15, 2021, and winning by six lengths from All Black Rain at a 1.56.9 rate at Gloucester Park on March 15, 2022.

He was disqualified from his first two WA appearances when handicappers later discovered his New Zealand earnings had made him ineligible for those events.

Mundijong trainer Michael Young recently decided to transfer Armed Reactor to Hall for a change of environment, with Hall explaining that the gelding was a bit of a lunatic.

“In the preliminary I let him walk around for one and a half laps; you can’t let him go because he just takes off,” said Hall. “But in the run tonight he was perfect.

“He likes to roll. His run at Pinjarra wouldn’t have suggested that he could do it like what he did tonight. Obviously, he took a lot out of his Pinjarra run.

“I try to keep him as quiet as possible at home, and I don’t do a lot with him. He barely works, and you have to race him for his fitness.”

ARMED REACTOR REPLAY

For complete race results, click here.

by Ken Casellas, for Gloucester Park