Aiden de Campo is driving in grand form and he gives Michael Joseph a good chance of winning the TABtouch Westbred Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Michael Joseph, trained in Capel by de Campo’s father Andrew, unleashed a powerful finishing burst to win easily from Our Zak Whitby at Pinjarra two starts ago and then gave a spirited performance when third behind the pacemaker Carter Micheal and Fanci A Dance over 2130m in fast time at Gloucester Park last Friday night.
“I was happy with him last week,” said Aiden de Campo. “He was three wide with cover (before the bell) and was four wide half-way down the back. And he boxed on well. It’s a tricky draw (No. 5) on Friday night and I’ll probably press forward. If he happened to find the top he would be very hard to beat.”
Hardest for Micheal Joseph to beat is likely to be the Barry Howlett-trained Fanci A Dance, who raced three wide without cover for much of the race before fighting on grimly to be fourth behind Carter Micheal last Friday night. At his previous start, a fortnight earlier, Fanci A Dance had a tough run in the breeze before winning from Chiaroscuro and Back To The Beach.
De Campo said that he also had each-way prospects on Friday night with Oneonthewood (race one), Tisadream (race two) Tellmetoattack (race four) and Tommy Be Good (race seven).
Tisadream, a brilliant winner last Friday night when he raced in the breeze before getting to the front 380m from home and racing away to win by four lengths from Extreme Prince and Vampiro, will start from the outside of the back line in the Yes Loans Pace over 2536m.
“The draw doesn’t help, but his run last week was probably the best of his career,” de Campo said. “He’s not purely a breeze horse or a leader. He’s versatile who can sit and sprint.”
Tellmetoattack will be having his first start for two months when he contests the Westsired Pace for two-year-olds. He won a 2100m trial at Bunbury last Saturday night.
“The trial was good,” said de Campo. “He sat last and ran on to win. He has a lot of ability, but has a lot of problems to match his ability. We’ve got a few steering problems with him and he can pull.”
The Ross Olivieri-trained Babyface Adda will be strongly fancied in this event. The Rich And Spoilt colt has won at two of his 11 starts and is the only winner in the nine-horse field. Babyface Adda, to be handled by Shannon Suvaljko, will start out wide at barrier seven, but should carry too many guns for his rivals.
De Campo has been granted a nine-day deferment of a 24-day suspension to enable him to drive on Friday night. He was suspended by the stewards, who found him guilty of causing interference to Shandale, who fell 50m from the post in the race won by Bettors Fire last Friday night.
“I’ve lodged an appeal against the suspension,” de Campo said. “I believe that I didn’t contribute to Shandale falling. He hit the back of my wheel and I don’t feel that I deserved a suspension at all.”