Rocknroll Lincoln Photo by Scott Hamilton Media
Star Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice has high hopes that Rocknroll Lincoln will maintain his superb form and win the $50,000 Direct Trades Supply Four and Five-Year-Old Championship over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“I plan that this will be his final run before going out for a spell,” Prentice said. “And it would be nice for him to go out on a winning note, though barrier nine will be no help. Once again, his chief mission will be the Fremantle and WA Pacing Cups next season.
“He went to the line really well when a close second to El Jacko in the Pinjarra Cup (on Monday of last week). He had to come three deep without cover.”
At his previous outing Rocknroll Lincoln gave a powerful performance to win the Governor’s Cup after racing three wide for the first lap and taking the lead 1100m from home before scoring by a length from As Happy As Larry at a 1.54.7 rate over 2130m. That was his first appearance since winning the group 1 2936m WA Pacing Cup five weeks earlier.
Rocknroll Lincoln will again be handled by champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr, who appears certain to send the five-year-old forward in the first circuit. The stallion will again clash with the Andrew de Campo-trained Handsandwheels, who has performed strongly in both the Governor’s Cup and Pinjarra Cup at his past two starts.
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Handsandwheels finished with plenty of determination when fourth in the Governor’s Cup and he raced in sixth position in the one-wide line and was hampered for room until the final stages when he went to the line strongly to finish a close fourth in the Pinjarra Cup.
Reinsman Aiden de Campo, who has driven 59 winners this season and will celebrate his 27th birthday on Saturday, said he was planning to set a solid pace in his bid for victory on Friday night.
Six-year-old El Jacko, who burst to the front in the first circuit and then set the pace before winning the Pinjarra Cup, will be favoured to give trainers Greg and Skye Bond and reinsman Ryan Warwick another feature race win by proving too smart for his rivals in the $30,000 Narrogin Cup over 2662m on Saturday night.
El Jacko will start from barrier five on the front line and will clash with giantkiller Always Arjay, Simba Bromac, James Butt and Sweet N Fast.
The Bond camp will be represented by in-form New Zealand-bred pacers Ana Afreet (Warwick) and The Buckeye Bullet in the DTS Chainmesh Fencing Pace, a WA Derby prelude over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
This will be an acid test for the inexperienced Ana Afreet, who will start from the back line. The versatile Bettors Delight black colt has not been extended in a winning at his only three starts --- two at Pinjarra and one at Bunbury.
The Buckeye Bullet, a winner at five of his ten starts, also faces a testing time from the No. 6 barrier on the front line.
Hall of Fame trainer Gary Hall Snr has three runners in the race, last-start winners Eloquent Mach (Stuart McDonald), Robbie Easton (Micheal Ferguson) and Major Trojan (Gary Hall Jnr).
The greatest interest will surround the performance of the lightly-raced Major Trojan, who will start from the inside of the back line. An impressive winner at two of his five New Zealand starts, Major Trojan made his Australian debut at Bunbury last Saturday night when he enjoyed a perfect trip in the one-out, one-back position in the $25,000 Battle of Bunbury before starting a three-wide move 300m from home and fighting of doggedly to finish a neck second to stablemate and pacemaker Eloquent Mach.
The final quarters on a rain-affected track were covered in 27.7sec. and 27.8sec. and Major Trojan, an upstanding colt, should have derived great benefit from his first outing for four months.
