Catch A Wave kick-starts a huge seven days for Gath

The return of eight-time Group 1 winner Catch A Wave (Captaintreacherous) kick-starts a huge seven days for premier harness racing driver Kate Gath.

Catch A Wave will head to Friday night’s Geelong Rocket as his first step towards a title defence in the $1.25mil Group 1 Nullarbor at Perth’s Gloucester Park on April 25.

From Geelong, Gath will head to the rich Bathurst Gold Crown finals night in western NSW on Saturday night where she will drive stable newcomer My Ultimate Barney in the $100,000 Gold Chalice final.

Then next week, she’s over to New Zealand to partner classy trotting mare Im Ready Jet in the $NZ600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge next Friday night.

“It’s a busy time, but exciting, too,” Gath said. “It’s all part of what we do, but the next week or so is particularly busy and then next month I’ll have a couple of trips to Perth with ‘Tex’ (Catch A Wave’s stable name).”

Catch A Wave, a winner of 24 of his 50 starts and over $2.1 million, hasn’t raced since trailing the field in the Miracle Mile at Menangle on March 8.

“He had no chance from last the way the race was run, but he still should’ve gone better,” Gath said. “He tied-up, which explains it. It’s unlike him.

“You just have to put a run like that behind you. He seems really well at home and he needed this run to start winding up for Perth.”

Although Catch A Wave is the standout class runner of the Geelong Rocket, Gath said it looked “tricky” on paper.

“He’s got Rocknroll Hammer and his half-brother Yambukian drawn inside him and either of them would be hard to rundown over the short trip at their best,” she said.

“His form before Sydney was terrific and if he’s back to that, he’ll be hard to beat.”

Catch A Watch stormed through the WA features last April, becoming the first to win the Nullarbor/Fremantle Cup double.

“He loved it over there and enjoyed their style of racing. It’s why we switched from taking him to the Cambridge race (Race by betcha on April 4) to focus on Perth instead,” Gath said.

At Bathurst, Gath expects My Ultimate Barney to be competitive after a close second in brilliant time in his qualifying heat on Monday.

“I couldn’t believe he got rundown, to be honest,” she said. “I thought I had them on the home turn, but Its Confidential just kept coming and got me late.

“Our guy was only second-up and they went super time, so the run should bring him on again. It’s a strong race.”

With Gath at Bathurst, she said junior driver Jordan Leedham would take the reins on Great Southern Star winner Watts Up Partytime at Melton on Saturday night.

“Jordy gets to use his claim which gets the horse into a really suitable race,” Gath said. “Just forget about his run at Menangle on Miracle Mile night. He just didn’t handle the track at all for some reason, he couldn’t trot.”

Gath said star mare Im Ready Jet, unbeaten in two runs this campaign, was booked to fly from Melbourne to Auckland on Thursday night.

The TAB Trot is eight days later.

“It’ll be a step-up on her past couple of wins, but it’s a preferential (barrier) draw, so she has to draw one or two, which will be a big help around a tricky track like Cambridge,” she said.

“It’s become a huge night at Cambridge and I can’t wait to be part of it.”

Gath will drive in a ladies’ invitational drivers race on the same night.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria