Nominal favourite Cott Beach appeals as the horse to beat in Friday night's $100,000 Owners Only Westbred 2YO Fillies Pace (2130m) at Gloucester Park. The lightly framed filly has won at five of her eight starts and banked more than $72,000 for her lucky connections. The Advance Attack two-year-old will bump her earnings past the $136,000 mark, courtesy of the $64,000 winner's cheque, if she can salute in the Group 1 feature and it would take a brave man to suggest that she couldn't.
Blythewood trainer Gary Elson has done a remarkable job to keep Cott Beach racing at her peak. She has been very consistent in her first season of racing with five wins, two seconds and a fourth in an ominous warning to Cott Beach's 11 rivals, Elson said his filly would be an improved horse from last week when she was sent straight to the front by regular reinsman Nathan Turvey and ran the opposition ragged to win by an ever-increasing margin. "She was short of a run last week," Elson said. "She's a lot fitter after that run last week and I expect her to be hard to beat. I was pleased that she had a relatively easy time of it in front last week."
Cott Beach has drawn awkwardly in gate five for Friday night's assignment, but Elson doesn't see the draw as being a hindrance. "I'll talk to Nathan about the tactics," he said. "But it's hard not to use her at the start because she's got such good gate speed. It may have looked like she was a bit slow out last week when she took a while to get past the inside horse (Infinite Symbol) but it's always hard to cross the horse drawn directly on your inside. She also had a little bit of a skip and hop just before they sent them away. I think she'll be able to muster more pace from the middle of the line."
Elson said Cott Beach was continually surprising him in her work at home. "I work her with the older horses, like Sprinter," he said. "She's a headstrong little thing and can sit on the back of a horse like Sprinter and follow speed really well and she's got a great turn of foot when she follows pace - she can really ping when she's held up for one run."
Elson said Cott Beach would, in all likelihood, have one more start this campaign. "If she goes as well as I expect her to on Friday night then we'll set her for the Golden Slipper in a couple of weeks," he said. "I know a horse like Jack Mac would be hard to beat, but she'd give him a run for his money if she happened to get a sit on him."
Hardest for Cott Beach to beat could be the polemarker Infinite Symbol, who finished second to her last week, and the Diamond Classic winner Cimorene, who upset odds-on favourite Miss Sangrial but Cimorene's chances were dealt a severe blow when she came up with gate nine at Tuesday's barrier draw.
