Fakenit too good in the WA Oaks

The form horse of the moment Fakenit (American Ideal) capped off a highly successful campaign with a sterling win in the Group 1 $150,000 Tabtouch Western Australia Oaks at Gloucester Park on Friday evening.

Coming off the back of recent strong wins in the Oaks Prelude and the Dainty’s Daughter Classic, Fakenit was easy in the betting due to her awkward draw in barrier 8.

Copper Head Lady with the services of Jack Callaghan was installed favourite ahead of Betterthanlife.

As expected Copper Head Lady had little trouble finding the front. No sooner had the field settled down Betterthanlife was sent around the field to sit outside the leader. And then Fakenit took off with driver Maddison Brown taking the position away from Betterthanlife with the latter securing a one out and one back trail.

Copper Head Lady set a reasonable tempo over the testing 2536 metre trip but Fakenit was up to the task as she looked to be travelling better as the field turned for home. Shaken up by Brown Fakenit despite the hard run looked every inch a star in the making as she cruised to the line just under nine metres ahead of the fast finishing Ruby Lovera with Copper Head Lady battling on for third.

FAKENIT OCT 3 REPLAY

The winner rated an outstanding 1.57 for the staying trip.

Unraced as a two year old and trained by Gary Hall Snr Fakenit has had just eight starts for five wins and three placings for just over $166,000 in stake money. The Oaks win made up for her strong second to Its Maa Time in the Westbred Final before winning her next two races. She is out of Fake News a Bettors Delight mare who was a top performer for the Hall stable winning 14 of her 38 appearances with seven placings. Fake News’ best win was a Group 3 three year old classic at Pinjarra and she raced until her four year old days reaching free for all class before being retired. Fakenit is the first of her progeny to race but she also has a yearling and weanling filly both by King of Swing which should attract keen interest.

So decisive was Fakenit’s win that few excuses could be made for the beaten brigade. Ruby Lovera had a charmed run three back on the rails before finishing on well while Copper Head Lady looked to have every chance in third place. Betterthanlife wasn’t that far away in fourth place but she had an easier run than Fakenit.

Driver Maddison Brown expressed her relief after the event.

“It makes it worth it when you get to drive horses like her.” Explaining her association with Fakenit Brown explained “I’ve never had an issue with her but obviously I got the drive when the legger went on and that obviously helped her immensely with her steering and getting her off her knees.”

“I’ve got to thank Stuart for that recommendation.”

“To be honest I was nervous just before I came out here but I was so confident in her that I didn’t have to do a lot of form in the race and I knew that I had to drive it to the pace of the race. She’s so versatile it was a pretty easy drive.”

“She was travelling well. Once I got her around to the breeze and I noticed that the leader wasn’t quite travelling I didn’t have to worry about that and just had to worry about keeping Junior in a pocket for as long as I could.”

“I knew that there was still plenty there but I was so surprised at how well she won. She’s just a competitive horse.”

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink