Cracking reinsman Chris Voak is riding on the crest of a wave and has already landed 128 winners this season. He has no hesitation in declaring that Gotta Go Gabbana is his best winning prospect at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The Annie Belton-trained Gotta Go Gabbana has drawn the prized No. 1 barrier in the 2536m Australian Marine Complex Pace and Voak is anxious to use the four-year-old’s good gate speed in a bid for an all-the-way victory.
“She’s sharp and in the zone,” Voak said. “She’s in a really good head space and she wants to be out there, racing. If she shows the speed she did last week, she will hold up comfortably. And if she leads, she’ll be mighty hard to beat.”
Gotta Go Gabbana has been gallant in defeat at four of her past five starts when she was forced to work hard in the breeze. Three starts ago, she led from barrier two and scored a comfortable victory over 2130m.
Voak named Detroit Lily (six wins from 14 starts) and Pick My Pocket (seven wins from 20 starts) as two of the hardest for Gotta Go Gabbana to beat. But he said that the Justin Prentice-trained Pick My Pocket (No. 3 barrier) would face a very difficult task if she was forced to race without cover.
Detroit Lily, second to Our Maja Mama in last month’s WA Oaks, will start from the inside of the back line. “If Detroit Lily stays on the pegs she is likely to have difficulty in getting a clear run in the late stages,” Voak said. “When Gotta Go Gabbana leads she doesn’t kick away, she just does what she has to do.”
Voak also has sound prospects with Iceenothink in the Kari Forest Motel Pace, in which the lightly-raced five-year-old is handily drawn at barrier three on the front line in the 2130m event.
“I see Iceenothink as my best winning prospect on the night,” said trainer Ross Olivieri. Voak said that the gelding’s form was hard to gauge.
“I drove him first-up in WA and he was awful,” Voak said. “Then I drove him again two starts after that and he led from barrier one and won at Northam when he no horse challenged him or put any pressure on him. I reckon he goes well on the pace, and from barrier three on Friday night he should be prominent.”
At his most recent appearance, at Northam on Tuesday of last week he was restrained from barrier seven and raced wide in the final circuit before finishing last in a field of nine.
