Hall takes it all

Not one but two $100,000 Group 1 feature races is what champion Western Australian harness racing driver Gary Hall Jnr walked away with at Gloucester Park tonight.

Hall drove the winners of both Westbred Classic Finals for the three-year-olds.

The premiership-winning driver started the success with Finvarra in the boys’ edition.

Finvarra is trained by Hall’s father Gary Hall Snr, who is no stranger to winning this race having won it as a trainer/driver in 1986 with Vero Prince and in 1991 with Berkley Road, then in 2018 as a trainer with One Off Delight.

Now Hall Snr will not have to think too far back to his last winner in this race with Finvarra taking out the Group 1 at start number six.

The colt by American Ideal out of the Changeover mare Nuala, has now won four races in his succinct career.

He overcame barrier six to claim his first feature victory and with a well-timed drive by Hall, Finvarra rated 1:56.3 in the 2130m event. Watch the replay here.

A race later Hall was back in the winners’ circle, this time with the Nathan Turvey-trained Bettor Beach Belle in the fillies’ edition of the Westbred Classic.

From barrier four Hall led throughout on the daughter of Bettors Delight and she clocked 1:59.4 to claim her sixth win in 25 starts. Watch the replay here.

This gave Hall his fifth win in this feature having won it with Paddy Hannan in 2004, Truckers Ruffnut in 2009, One Off Delight in 2018 and, of course, Finvarra in 2021.

The success saw Hall reach 3243 wins as a driver.

Bettor Beach Belle gave Turvey a training treble on the program after also achieving success with Blue Blazer and Rakasinc, which were both driven by Emily Suvaljko.

Also tonight  Shockwave made a statement with his racing return to win first up by more than 22 metres.

The son of Mach Three has not raced in seven months and led throughout from the pole in a rate of 1:55.5 for the 2536m event. Watch the replay here.

By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink