With just three months left until the end of the 2016/17 season, the husband and wife team of Greg and Skye Bond are well placed to win their first metropolitan trainer's title. The Bonds already have the State trainer's title in the bag. They have trained 162 winners throughout WA so far this season - almost double that of next best Gary Hall Snr - for stakes close to $2M but they have never won a city trainer's title, finishing second on a number of occasions, with their 88 winners for the season of 2011/12 - just 10 behind Hall - being the closest they've been. However, the Bonds currently lead the Hall camp in the city training race with 67 winners to Hall's 55.
Twelve winners is a lot to catch up in three months, but if anyone can do it then Hall has proven time and time again that he's the man. Hall hasn't won nine of the last ten city training titles simply by luck (he finished second to Ross Olivieri in the 2010/11 season). His ability to find and then fine tune his horses underlines his ability and skill as a horseman with few peers.
Greg and Skye Bond have shown they have the touch when it comes to finding the right horses for WA racing conditions and then getting them to their peak. On Friday night at Gloucester Park the Bonds and Hall go head-to-head in many races.
The first race goes to Hall with the smart Herrick Roosevelt drawing the pole and looking the best of good things to post an all-the-way victory. The Bonds don't have a runner.
The Bonds have Blinding Light representing them in the second and must be given an each-way chance. Hall doesn't have a runner.
The classy Mcclinchie and Pay Me Cullen should even the score in the third for the Bonds as Hall doesn't have a runner and this is a very winnable race for Mcclinchie.
Both stables bypass the fourth event.
The Bonds have Vanquished and Condrieu flying the flag for the stable in the fifth race, with Hall again not represented.
Hall has four runners in the Pure Steel Final - Harry Hoo, Zach Maguire, Overboard Again and Campora - while the Bond camp hasn't got a runner.
Both stables will go head-to-head in the seventh, the Members Sprint, with the Bonds fielding four runners - Our Jimmy Johnstone, Phoenix Warrior, Simply Susational and Ima Connoisseur. The Hall camp will be represented by Run Oneover and Beaudiene Boaz. This promises to be the race of the night as far as the speed battle goes with Our Jimmy Johnstone (Barrier 2) and Run Oneover(3) both able to fly from the machine. A hectic early pace should bring horses like Bettor Reward, Beaudiene Boaz, Phoenix Warrior and Ima Connoisseur into the equation. Hard to call this for either stable, but the Bond camp's weight of numbers could be the deciding factor.
And that's where both stables call it a night.
With only 12 wins separating these two mighty stables, the next three months promises to be a battle of the big guns as the Bonds strive to wrest the city title away from a man who has made it his own in recent years.
Stay tuned - it promises to be an intriguing contest.
