Can Return Fire winning at Gloucester Park last month
Highly-promising New Zealand-bred four-year-old Can Return Fire has overcome a worrying injury and is poised to return to his winning ways when he contests the XXXX Gold Golden Nugget prelude at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Chris Lewis will resume from suspension to drive the brilliant gelding who has drawn perfectly at barrier one in the 2130m prelude.
Owner-trainer Alan Bell is looking for Can Return Fire to run a smart time in his final outing before contesting the $175,000 XXXX Gold Golden Nugget championship the following Friday night.
“He’s spot on, but he needs a hard run to get him at his peak for the big race,” Bell said.
Can Return Fire’s winning sequence of five was halted abruptly in a Nugget prelude last Friday night when he met with severe interference and broke 450m from home.
“He was travelling very well when he was checked and would have been very hard to beat,” Bell said. Reinsman Justin Prentice said that he had not asked the gelding for an effort when he was knocked out of the race. Prentice felt that Can Return Fire would have been proved hard to beat in the race which was won by the fast-finishing Argent Treasure.
Bell has been treating Can Return Fire’s near foreleg since the race. “He got a knock on the leg when struck by his hind leg when he broke after being checked,” Bell said. “It is nothing serious, but I have been treating the injury to make sure he is perfectly okay to run this week.”
Can Return Fire possesses sparkling early speed and he should set the pace and win on Friday night and against 11 other Nugget hopefuls. Eight of the 12 runners are from New Zealand, with one of them, Mysta Magical Mach, making his first appearance in Australia.
Mysta Magical Mach, who is trained by the astute Tony Svilicich and will be driven by teenager Kyle Harper, is ideally drawn at barrier three. He has had 17 starts in New Zealand for six wins and four placings. He finished fifth over 2400m at his latest start, on October 12.
Mysta Magical Mach warmed up for Friday’s event with a close second to Adda Double Dip in a 2150m trial at Byford last Sunday when he dashed over the final 400m in 28.6sec.
The Greg Bond-trained Pablito (barrier two) is a smart gelding who should be prominent, while Gransagenic, a certainty beaten at Gloucester Park last Friday night when he was badly hemmed in on the pegs for most of the way, will have admirers, even from his second-line draw.
IM FULL OF FIRE NOMINATED FOR THE NUGGET
New Zealand-bred four-year-old Im Full of Fire has been nominated this week for the $175,000 XXXX Gold Golden Nugget championship at Gloucester Park on Friday week and he will have his final run before the big race when he contests a C5-C7-class 2105m mobile event at Cranbourne in Victoria tonight (Wednesday).
Nathan Jack will drive the smart stallion for Ballarat trainer Ian Frost, but it is expected that Chris Alford will drive the horse in Perth if he gets a start in the 2536m Nugget.
Im Full of Fire is nicely drawn at barrier two in a field of seven in tonight’s Cranbourne event, in which he will be making his fourth appearance as a four-year-old.
He started his current campaign with wins at Ballarat and Horsham last month. Then, at Ballarat on November 7, he was checked and broke before finishing sixth.
A winner of five races as a two-year-old, Im Full of Fire had 17 starts last season for six wins and seven placings. He has a career record of 29 starts for 13 wins, ten placings and $106,125 in prizemoney.
Last season he finished sixth behind Tanabi Bromac in the Victoria Derby at Moonee Valley, fifth behind Beach Fighter in the New South Wales Derby at Harold Park and a head second to Standelle in the Queensland Derby at Albion Park.
He is quoted at 20/1 by Bettingwest for the Nugget in which Tanabi Bromac has firmed from 7/1 to favouritism at 5/2, with wagers of $7000 to $1000, $15,000 to $2500 and $4500 to $1500.
Bettingwest’s latest Nugget market is: 5/2 Tanabi Bromac, 7/2 Im Themightyquinn, 7/1 Argent Treasure, Mister Odds On, 9 Can Return Fire, 10 The Vice Captain, 12 Total Defiance, 14 Schinzig Buller, Sir Artsplace, 20 Ruby Dazzler, Im Full of Fire, 25 Alzona, Gransagenic, Lively Royce, upwards others.
TANABI BROMAC TO MAKE WA DEBUT
WA harness racing fans will have the first opportunity to watch crack Victorian pacer Tanabi Bromac live in action when he runs in the HMAS Stirling Stakes over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Trainer Keith Cotchin has engaged champion WA reinsman Chris Lewis to drive the black gelding, but Victorian ace Gavin Lang will have the drive in the $175,000 XXXX Gold Golden Nugget final at Gloucester Park the following Friday night.
Four-year-old Tanabi Bromac will start from the outside barrier (nine), but he should carry too many guns for his older rivals, who include smart six-year-old Steuben, who is resuming after a spell for leading trainer Gary Hall sen. and driver Shayne Cramp.
Tanabi Bromac notched his 12th victory from 23 starts when he set a dawdling pace from barrier three before sprinting the final 800m in 56.4sec. and last 400m in 27.1sec. in scoring a three-length win over 2100m at Moonee Valley last Saturday week.
Argent Treasure is the only automatic qualifier for the Nugget championship and he will be joined by the winner of Friday night’s second Nugget prelude.
Several trainers have decided against starting leading Nugget hopefuls this Friday night and they include Gary Hall sen. (Im Themightyquinn), Greg Bond (Mister Odds On), Andrew de Campo (The Vice Captain), Aldo Cortopassi (Total Defiance), Greg Harper (Schinzig Buller) and Kim Young (Ruby Dazzler). John Graham’s Lively Royce is still recovering from stomach ulcers.
Dependable stayer Vintage Concerto has excellent prospects of giving a newly-formed syndicate of ten an exciting result by winning the $30,000 882 6PR Navy Cup at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The redoubtable seven-year-old was claimed for $15,000 last Friday week by Dale, Phillip and Murray Putland, Rosaria Patane, Christopher Booth, William Badger, Mark Botts, Michael Rowe, Luke Tabbakh and Matthew Young.
And the syndicate received an early dividend of $4490 when new trainer Shannon Suvaljko drove Vintage Concerto to an easy victory in a 2130m mobile event at Gloucester Park last Saturday night.
The only previous time Suvaljko had handled Vintage Concerto was in the 2007 Navy Cup 12 months ago when he drove the gelding for trainer Gary Hall sen. when the No. 1 stable driver Gary Hall jun. elected to drive the hot favourite Fac Et Spiro, who finished a head second to Global Force.
Vintage Concerto was trapped three wide for the first 500m and then worked hard outside the pacemaker Class Mate before fading to 11th.
The Navy Cup, a standing-start event, will be decided over 2503m, a journey which suits Vintage Concerto. The big gelding has started 22 times in 2503m stands for five wins, six seconds and three thirds.
The Midnight Rocket will be a warm favourite and will prove very hard to beat after several outstanding performances over the past three months when ten starts produced six wins and two placings. He possesses a devastating finishing burst.
He was last with two laps to travel and came from seventh at the bell with a powerful three and four-wide burst to win from the pacemaker Whosyourdaddy over 2503m at Gloucester Park last Friday night.
In-form reinsman Shayne Cramp, fresh from a double at Gloucester Park last Friday night, continued the good work when he opened Monday afternoon’s meeting at headquarters with a winner at 106/1.
Cramp, driving Archean Hanover for Upper Swan trainer Adam Kirke, brought the four-year-old mare home with a storming late charge from 11th on the home turn to snatch a last-stride victory over Easton Starstruck in the Sky Channel Stakes over 2130m.
Kirke’s father Ken, who races Archean Hanover with Brian Anderson, Dave Mason and Tom Curtis, was all smiles after the mare had won and paid $107.20 straight-out on the tote.
“I thought she would run a big race after she had worked extremely well and in fast time at Gloucester Park the previous Wednesday morning,” Kirke said.
“But she got down on her bumpers in that workout and that, plus drawing the back line, made her job a bit more difficult.”
Archean Hanover, who was having her first start after a spell and the Kirke’s wanted Colin Brown to drive the mare. But Brown opted to drive Victorian mare Courtybabe for trainer Greg Bond at her WA debut.
Morgan Woodley, who drove Archean Hanover at her previous start, was unavailable through suspension and Stephen Reed, who had driven the mare at her second most recent outing, had been engaged for Easton Starstruck.
Courtybabe, favourite at 5/4, set the pace before wilting to fourth. Easton Starstruck (8/1) raced at the rear before finishing powerfully. She hit the front a couple of strides from the post, only to be caught on the line by Archean Hanover.
It was almost a carbon copy of the final event at Gloucester Park on October 17 when the Adam Kirke-trained Solid Gold Blue Jean, driven by Cramp thundered home from the rear to snatch a head victory from Midnight Chill, driven by Reed.
PADBERG PACERS GIVE OWNER A RARE RESULT
Prominent owner John Padberg is enjoying yet another bountiful season, with an early-season highlight being the most unusual feat of starting four horses in one race who finished in the first four placing to produce a unique quartet.
This happened at Kellerberrin last Sunday week when Padberg was a part-owner of the first four runners across the line in the Northam Feed and Hire Stakes.
Columbus Georgia, a 4/1 chance trained by Padberg’s wife Debbie, was driven to an all-the-way victory by Craig Saligari. Parisian Rocket (Michael Plozza) was second, J CS Starbuck (Jake Tanner) was third and Erykah Badu (Michael George) finished fourth.
Plozza, Padberg’s brother-in-law, trained the second and third placegetters and Debbie Padberg also trained the fourth placegetter.
Columbus Georgia is owned by John Padberg, his daughter Kristy, Claire Cummins, Terry and Craig Saligari and Michael George. Parisian Rocket and J CS Starbuck are raced by John and Debbie Padberg, who are also part-owners of Erykah Badu with David and Tanya Playle and Debbie Callard.
SOME SHENNANIGANS AT WILLIAMS
Harness racing provides abundant exciting action, and there was some highly unusual activity at the meeting at Williams last Sunday when the mobile barrier took off between races on a wild, unscheduled burst around the track.
It transpired that a couple of characters, believed to have been quenching their thirsts at the nearby Williams Hotel, popped across the highway and decided it would be fun to take the mobile barrier on a joy ride.
The young men, reported to be Irish backpackers in the wild west for a bit of itinerant labouring and with a somewhat carefree attitude, were last seen in the strong arms of the local law.
