Gary Hall Jnr in worthy tribute win to his late friend Mark Lewis

Gary Hall Jnr was seen at his very best when he guided top pacer Mighty Ronaldo (Alta Christiano) to a strong harness racing win in the $50,000 Group 3 Nova Winter Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday evening.

The seven year old gelding eventually obtained a beautiful one and one back trail early after being caught wide with stablemate Rolling Fire freewheeling in front.

Hall made the hot favourite Gee Heza Sport work hard early sitting three wide before having to race outside the leader.

Gee Heza Sport looked to be in trouble on the final bend with Rolling Fire still giving plenty of cheek. But Hall timed his run perfectly and Mighty Ronaldo swooped on the leaders to have the race well and truly in his keeping. He scored by just under three metres from the fast finishing Brickie’s Dream with I’m The Black Flash also finishing fast for third.

MIGHTY RONALDO JUL 11 REPLAY

The win was especially poignant for Hall who like all of the Harness racing family was left saddened with the passing of Mark Lewis earlier in the week.

Hall spoke for many in his quiet reflection after the event.

“Sort of don’t know how to feel about it. It’s one of those things that’s going to take some time. He was a great mate of mine. I was speaking to Chris (Mark’s father) during the week and he asked if I could wear the armbands all night and I said I had planned on doing it obviously.”

“To win this race the main race on the night everything felt track work out there. Everything seemed like a calmness over the whole night. I never had any concern to sort of panic at any stage. The horse did the rest. It was a pretty special win really.”

Mighty Ronaldo is trained by Justin Prentice and lays claim to being one of West Australia’s best performers over his career in which he has three Group 1 races, namely the WA Golden Slipper as a two year old, the West Australia Derby and the Fremantle Cup.

On his night the gelding possesses a devastating sprint and he has now won 14 races for just under $964,000 so he is getting close to the million dollar mark.

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink