Gloucester Park preview

Gloucester Park harness racing preview with Ken Casellas

Lavra Joe is a big show

Five-year-old Lavra Joe (Roll With Joe), the only West Australian-bred pacer in the $30,000 Garrard’s Your One Stop Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday evening, is in peak form for owner-trainer Ray Jones and has excellent prospects of warming up for the $1 million Nullarbor Slot Race the following Friday with a victory in this 2536m event.

His clash with the Belinda McCarthy-trained star Spirit Of St Louis should provide plenty of fireworks, with champion 67-year-old reinsman Chris Lewis pitting his skill with the 21-year-old rising superstar Jack Callaghan, who will be making his first appearance at Gloucester Park.

Lavra Joe, the winner at 29 of his 58 starts, is favourably drawn at barrier No. 2, with Spirit Of St Louis, a winner at 24 of his 55 starts, at No. 3.

Both pacers possess excellent gate speed, with Lewis aiming to give Lavra Joe the best possible chance of victory by winning the start and dictating terms in front.

Lewis, always thoughtful and conservative, said: “We’ll push forward and hope to lead, and Lavra Joe doesn’t mind the 2536m. I think we saw that when he led and won the 2569m Bunbury Cup two starts ago.

“Lavra Joe’s second to Magnificent Storm over 2130m last Friday night was a top run. It was a top effort to come from where he did and get home the way he did. It was the top run you want to see leading up to the big race. He has drawn well on Friday night and I think he can win. This should be a perfect lead-up to the Nullarbor.”

Lavra Joe started out wide at barrier seven in last Friday night’s Free-For-All when he was restrained back to last in the field of eight. He was still last at the 350m before Lewis took him six wide on the home turn and the gelding ran home with a powerful burst to finish second, a length from the winner, after covering the final 400m in 27.2sec.

Six days earlier Lavra Joe began out wide at barrier seven before dashing to an early lead, setting the pace and winning the Bunbury Cup by a length from Magnificent Storm.

Callaghan has formed a wonderful association with Spirit Of St Louis, the favourite for the Nullarbor, having being in the sulky for five group feature events with him.

Spirit Of St Louis has won eight races in New Zealand, seven in New South Wales, five in Queensland and four in Victoria. Three starts ago he set the pace and won a group 2 $100,000 Free-For-All at Menangle, rating 1.52.4 over the 1609m. He then led for the first 80m of the Miracle Mile before trailing the pacemaker Catch A Wave and finishing second to that pacer.

Three weeks after that run Spirit Of St Louis sat behind the pacemaker in a 1609m event at Menangle and was blocked for a run until the final 100m when he fought on gamely to finish third behind Fire Fox and Sahara Sirocco.

Minstrel, a talented six-year-old prepared by champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond, will start from barrier four in Friday’s race, and will be on trial for a start in the Nullarbor. He will be handled by his usual driver Deni Roberts and is capable of a bold showing.

He raced three wide in the first lap and then in the breeze when a fighting third behind Diego and Sangue Reale in the 2130m Governor’s Cup three weeks ago. A week earlier Minstrel raced without cover before sprinting over the final quarters in 27.5sec. and 27.8sec. and winning at a 1.54 rate from Hampton Baner over 1730m.

Diego, prepared by Hall of Fame trainer Gary Hall snr, is in devastating form, with his past eight starts producing six wins and two thirds. Maddison Brown will drive him from the awkward barrier of No.6. Most of his recent victories have been when he has set the pace, but this week Brown will have to rely on his sit-sprint ability.

Voak plans Cup victory

Only nine mares have won the Easter Cup in the past 70 years, but star reinsman Chris Voak is confident that four-year-old mare Taking The Miki (Always B Miki) can succeed in the $50,000 Garrard’s Horse And Hound Easter Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night

Taking The Miki, winner of the WA Oaks last October, will start from barrier five on the front line in the 2503m standing-start group 3 feature — and Voak is planning set the pace just like he did last Friday night when Taking The Miki romped to an easy all-the-way victory in a 2503m stand.

“She will pace away fine, and I hope to get to the front,” said Voak. “And if I do, I’ll rate her to win and make the main dangers Street Hawk and Hector, work at the right time.

“Last week Taking The Miki (who is trained by Jemma Hayman) improved in leaps and bounds on her first-up win (at Bunbury six days earlier). She felt a lot sharper and ran her final 2400m in 2min. 56.8sec. which is good going.”

Voak has happy memories of his win in the 2014 Easter Cup when Finbar Abbey, an eight-year-old metropolitan maiden performer trained by Ross Olivieri, raced wide early and in the breeze at various stages before finishing determinedly to beat the fast-finishing Polak by a neck.

The only mares to have won the Easter Cup in the past 70 years are Blue Mist (1953), Portree (1959), Color Glo (1967), Miss Dundee (1971), Wee Cent (1974), My Dianthus (1985), Via Valencia (1991), Party Date (2005) and Leap Of Faith (2021).

Champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond have won the Easter Cup with Assassinator (2017) and Mighty Conqueror (2019) and are pinning their faith in the richly-talented New Zealand-bred four-year-old Street Hawk, who will begin from the 10m line in his first appearance in a stand.

Street Hawk’s driver Deni Roberts said that she was pleased with the gelding’s performance in a standing-start trial at Pinjarra on Wednesday of last week. “He was safe and didn’t show any signs of missing away,” she said.

“So, that was promising, going into this race. But obviously it will be a little bit of a test because there’s a lot of normal stand horses in the race who get away quite fast. Street Hawk has got to get away safely, and then we will be part of it.

“On form, he is the best horse in the race, but you know how these stands can be. Taking The Miki was very impressive last Friday.”

Champion reinsman Chris Lewis has won the Easter Cup seven times, scoring with Pallaton (1980), Gold Rowan (1984), Village Kid (1987), Abmidas (1997), Party Date (2005), OK Windermere (2006) and Lovers Delight (2015), and he gives his drive American Bullitt a good each-way chance.

American Bullitt, trained by Sonia Zucchiatti, started from the No. 1 barrier on the front line last Friday when he trailed the pacemaker Taking The Miki and finished second to that mare in a 2503m stand. He will again start from the inside of the front line this week.

“We’ll be pushing to get the same sort of the run this week,” he said.

Stick with Nevermindthechaos

Outstanding mare Nevermindthechaos (Sportswriter) was dogged by bad luck in the Empress Stakes last week, and she gets an ideal opportunity to return to the winning list when she starts from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line in the $26,000 Garrard’s Free-For-All for mares at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

“If anything else could’ve gone wrong, it would’ve,” said trainer Michael Young. “There wasn’t much left that she could have ticked off from the go-wrong list. She seems to find bother when she shouldn’t. It doesn’t help that she is so trigger happy.”

Nevermindthechaos was checked and broke into a gallop just after the field raced out of the front straight the second time — as a result of the staggered effect when the pace slackened — and she lost several lengths before Gary Hall jnr dashed her forward to move into the breeze.

She was still in second place when she met interference in the closing stages and Hall was dislodged from the sulky.

Young is confident that Nevermindthechaos has the ability to overcome the outside barrier and win the 2130m event this week. “She drops a long way in class and we will be going forward — to lead or breeze, and she should go 1.55, and if that is good enough she should win,” he said.

“She is better off leading or breezing, where she can run her own race.”

Adding interest to the race will be the first appearance in Western Australia of Sydney mare Machs Legacy, who has raced 47 times for eight wins, 17 seconds and three thirds. She will start from the No. 4 barrier and will be driven by Jack Callaghan for Menangle trainer Cameron Ross.

At her most recent start Machs Legacy began from barrier seven, was restrained to the rear and battled on, out wide, to finish fifth behind Loubowski over 1609m at Menangle on March 4. She revealed good gate speed from the No. 2 barrier, but raced without cover when second to Far Out Bro over 1609m at Newcastle at her previous outing.

Machs Legacy has led and won at Wagga (twice), Menangle, Penrith and Newcastle, but she is generally regarded as a sit-sprinter.

Goodfellaz looks the goods

Lightly-raced four-year-old Goodfellaz (American Ideal) has resumed after a spell in splendid form and he looks a star bet at Gloucester Park on Friday afternoon when he will start from the prized No. 1 barrier in the 2130m Garrard’s Rio Cobra Pace.

The American Ideal gelding, trained by Debra Lewis, raced in the one-out, one-back position for much of the way before finishing strongly to be third behind talented four-year-olds Noted and Tricky Miki in a Gold Bullion heat on Tuesday night when the final 800m was covered in 56sec.

That was his second appearance after a seven-month absence, and his effort earlier this week delighted champion reinsman Chris Lewis, who said: “He is a good leader and this is a drop in class. I think that this should be a good race for him.”

Toughest for Goodfellaz to beat is likely to be Alcopony, the only other four-year-old in the field who will be driven by Emily Suvaljko from barrier four.

“I drove Alcopony three starts ago when he went very well, finishing second to Roll Up,” said Suvaljko. “And at his next start he finished a very good fourth behind El Chema and Street Hawk.”

Suvaljko is also looking forward to driving Gliding Star for trainer Jemma Hayman in the Garrard’s Here On Track Pace for three-year-old fillies. She has driven Gliding Star at her five starts for three wins, one second and a fifth placing.

Under the preferential barrier conditions of the race Gliding Star will start from the outside barrier in the field of eight.

“It is an even field, and we just have to hope that they go hard,” said Suvaljko. “Gliding Star has shown that she can lead and come from behind. We will probably sit up and hope there is a good tempo.”

Seven of the eight runners were bred in Western Australia, the exception being the New Zealand-bred filly Sweet Ivy, who is trained in Bunbury by Sarah Wall.

Sweet Ivy, to be driven by Gary Hall jnr from barrier five, followed her excellent debut second to promising gelding Franco Mecca at Bunbury with an excellent victory over 1684m at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon.

She began out wide at barrier six, raced three wide early and took the lead after 400m before going on to win by a length from Syncopation.

Sweet Ivy took a little while to get to the front and then she got it all her own way,” said Hall. “She has her main dangers (Gliding Star, Fly To Fame and Thorium Energy) outside of her on Friday, so we will try to keep them there, behind us or outside of us. She will go well.”

The Katja Warwick-trained Fly To Fame is the most experienced and best performed runner in the race, and is capable of fighting out the finish after starting out wide at barrier seven.

Fly To Fame will be handled by Chris Lewis, who said: “She needs an inside draw. She is only a little filly and is up against some decent horses.”

For complete Gloucester Park race entries, click here.

by Ken Casellas, for Gloucester Park