Blakemore on Donegal Rundlescreek Photo by Scott Hamilton Media
Young New Zealand reinsman Michael Blakemore has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, driving Donegal Rundlescreek to three wins in a row, with the mare finishing strongly to defeat much-decorated stablemate Dodolicious on each occasion.
Punters should seriously consider following Blakemore in the first two events at Gloucester Park on Friday night when he will handle pacers with long losing sequences --- Courage Tells in the TABtouch Inter Dominion Starts November 24 Pace and Mighty Major in the TABtouch Inter Dominion Heat Night Two November 28 Pace.
Courage Tells, a ten-year-old trained by Skye Bond, should appreciate a drop down in classification from M4 last January to M2 and he makes plenty of appeal from barrier No. 4 on Friday night. He has been unplaced at his past seven starts and has a losing sequence of 20. But he has been racing in far stronger company in recent times.
He is a versatile pacer with excellent gate speed and gets a chance to break through for a win in a field in which not one of the 12 runners has been successful at his or her past six starts. The only runner with a last-start minor placing is the youngest runner, four-year-old Mcardles Gem, who will start from the inside of the back line and is capable of sprinting home strongly.
Mcardles Gem, trained at Byford by Peter Anderson, was a $105.20 outsider at his latest appearance, when he trailed the pacemaker and finished third behind Rock Diamonds and Robert The Bruce at Northam last Saturday week.
The most interesting runner is Challenging, who is now trained by Mike Reed and will start out wide at barrier eight with Shannon Suvaljko in the sulky. Challenging resumed after a spell at Northam last Saturday week when he raced four back on the pegs before running on to finish fourth behind Rock Diamonds.
Mighty Major, a seven-year-old trained by Ryan Cummins, has a losing sequence of 24, but looks a sound prospect from the favourable No. 2 barrier on the front line.
His past two runs have been full of merit. Two starts ago he was an outsider at $115.70 and surprised when he raced in fifth place, three back on the pegs, before finishing gamely to be second to smart four-year-old Runrunjimmydunn over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Tuesday of last week.
He followed that with an excellent fourth behind Ruling Gold over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Tuesday night. He was a $23.90 chance from barrier eight and was tenth in the one-wide line at the bell before finishing with a spirited burst.
