Ravenswood horseman Nathan Turvey simply cannot believe his good fortune when he was contacted completely out of the blue last year by Karl Deiley, who asked him to train a young pacer by the name of Simba Bromac.
“I had never met him and I don’t know why he picked me out,” said Turvey. “That’s the million-dollar question.”
Turvey was more than happy to accept the offer from Deiley, a West Australian businessman, to train Simba Bromac, a New Zealand-bred pacer who had raced six times in Victoria for one win (at Cobram in February of last year) and three placings.
Turvey is delighted at the progress shown by Simba Bromac, who has had 17 starts for him for 13 wins, three seconds and one fourth. And he is excited at the four-year-old’s potential, saying that he was hopeful that the gelding would develop into a realistic prospect for the rich feature events at the Christmas carnival next summer.
“Simba Bromac is pretty smart and I haven’t had a Christmas feature horse before, but he could be the one,” Turvey said.
Simba Bromac is in superb form and has excellent prospects of extending his winning sequence to five by proving the master of his nine rivals in the $25,000 Caporn Electrical Pure Steel final at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He is the only M0-class runner in the field, but should carry too many guns for his rivals, all of whom have an M1 classification. He has drawn perfectly at the No. 1 barrier on the front line and Chris Lewis will attempt an all-the-way victory.
“Simba Bromac is jumping out of his skin and to lead, that’s the plan,” said Turvey. “Touch of Success (barrier five) has good gate speed, but I think that Simba Bromac will hold up. He’s very fast out. It’s a good field and if Simba Bromac has to do a bit of work early, it could bring smart horses like El Jacko into the race.”
One of Simba Bromac’s main rivals appears to be Mister Versace, who has struck a purple patch for Banjup trainer Annie Belton, with two wins and a fast-finishing third at his past three starts. He will start from barrier three on the front line with Chris Voak in the sulky.
Mister Versace was most impressive last Friday night when he led for the first 220m and then sat behind the pacemaker Mista Shark before finishing with a powerful burst to beat that pacer by 2m at a 1.56.5 rate over 2130m.
Belton is in fantastic form, winning with each of her past four starters at Gloucester Park (Mister Versace and Lady De La Renta last Friday night and Lady Valasca and Dior Mia More on Tuesday evening).
Whenmechief, trained by Michael Brennan and driven by Michael Grantham, gave a powerful frontrunning display to win from Ohoka Darcy at a 1.57.5 rate over 2130m last Friday night. He faces a sterner test this week from the No. 7 barrier.
The in-form Skye Bond-trained pair of Messi and El Jacko fared poorly in the random draw and will need plenty of luck from barriers eight and nine, respectively.
