D-Day looms for Nullarbor slots

Greg Bond and Justin Prentice have joined Gary Hall Sr to make Friday night’s Gloucester Park harness racing meeting a defining night in the countdown to the $1.25mil Group 1 Nullarbor.

Hall Sr is already on record saying he will use the stellar race night to decide between Jumpingjackmac (Mach Three), Skylou (Sweet Lou) and Diego (Bettor’s Delight) as the runner in the slot he shares with Steve Waters.

Jumpingjackmac looks a clear favourite ahead of the untapped Skylou with Diego needing to do something extraordinary on Friday to leapfrog his two stablemates.

Bond and Prentice said the same.

Bond’s stable slot is down to Minstrel or Tenzing Bromac, who clash in Friday night’s $50,000 Group 3 Governors Cup.

Prentice, who already has Never Ending in the race through the Ladbrokes slot, will use the Governors Cup to help decide with fellow slot owners between Mighty Ronaldo and Tricky Miki for the JP Racing slot runner.

Hall Sr’s pair Diego and Jumpingjackmac are also in the race.

While Skylou faces an interesting test in a strong fourth event on the same card.

Back to Bond, who openly said the slot is Minstrel’s to lose.

“He’s in the box seat and he’ll probably get it, but we’ve got the luxury of being able to wait and see how they both go Friday night,” he said.

“Minstrel is the more proven of the two at the top level and is back going as good as he ever has.

“We’ve got a huge opinion of Tenzing Bromac and he showed why first-up.”

Tenzing Bromac has a better draw on Friday – gate four compared to Minstrel’s gate six – but he isn’t renowned for his early speed.

“They’re both good enough to be in it, but it looks like only one will get in,” Bond said.

Dylan Egerton-Green will partner Tenzing Bromac, with stable driver Deni Roberts aboard Minstrel.

Mighty Ronaldo will back-up from a fifth in last Saturday night’s Bunbury Cup and has the pole on Friday with Emily Suvaljko aboard.

Maddison Brown will take the reins on Tricky Miki from gate three.

“It’s decision time after this,” Prentice said. “I’ll talk with all the owners involved in the slot next Monday to settle on which horse we go with.”

Prentice said Never Ending had come through his close-up sixth in the Bunbury Cup well.

“All seems well,” he said. “We’ll try a few different things because he hung so badly, but the pleasing part is he was beaten less than five metres.

“As planned, he goes to the Westbred (4YO) on Friday week for his final lead-up before the Nullarbor.”

The three eastern state raiders heading to the Nullarbor – Catch A Wave, Hot And Treacherous and Spirit Of St Louis – will be flown from Sydney to Perth on Monday.

Hot And Treacherous, trained by Jason Grimson who won last year’s Nullarbor with Betterzippit, is the only one of the trio racing this weekend. He will tackle a 1609m free-for-all at Menangle on Saturday night.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Adam Hamilton, for RWWA