Spirit Of A Shark
The sub 1:50 USA pacer Spirit Of A Shark makes his Western Australian debut in the
Cadbury Schweppes Stakes at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He joins Tibet, Ultra Jet and Crouch as former American pacers to have raced at Gloucester Park in the past 13 years.
Spirit Of A Shark is owned by Queensland mining entrepreneur Clive Palmer and races under the name of Palmer’s Cold Mountain Stud which has imported more than 100 breeding and racing stock to set up a major breeding and racing operation based in Queensland.
Spirit Of A Shark is now in the stables of Ross Olivieri and will be driven by leading reinsman Chris Lewis in his clash with the rising star Glencadam.
Glencadam will find it tough from his draw on the extreme outside of the front line with the in-form Just Jasper drawn to his immediate inside.
Spirit Of A Shark will start from barrier two on the second row between the Gary Hall trained pair of Franco Amon and Fac Et Spiro.
Palmer imported Spirit Of A Shark to New Zealand in November 2007 and while he didn’t race in that country he was prepared by Michelle Wallis for the 2008 Inter Dominion held in Melbourne at his first Southern Hemisphere start.
He finished second to Reba Rajah in a heat of the Inters and has subsequently won two country penalty races at Albion Park. One of those wins came courtesy of a 1:53.9 mile which gained the gelding a start in the Len Smith Mile at Menangle on the opening day of that track.
Smoken Up won that race in an Australian Record time of 1:51.9.
Spirit Of A Shark has a best winning time over a mile of 1:48.8 and his 23 wins have garnered some $595,000 in stakes to date.
His biggest win came in the $150,000 First State Free-For-All at Harrington Raceway when he set a new World Record for an aged gelding on a half-mile track with a 1:50.8 victory.
All Spirit, a 2yo Bettors Delight half-sister to Spirit Of A Shark, won a $39,178 division of the time honoured Tompkins Geers Stake at Tioga Downs in July this year.
Robinson drawn to repeat win
Former Queensland pacer Robinson has drawn the prized pole position for trainer Ross Olivieri in the Channel Nine Conditioned Handicap on Friday night.
He will clash with the former Victorian pacer Spirit Of Shard which is chasing its third win in as many starts since entering the stables of Gary Hall Snr.
Spirit Of Shard worked outside the leader throughout last Friday before drawing away for an impressive win over Cumbria Warrior and Silvertail Icon and although he is up in class on last week’s field he again should prove very hard to beat.
Robinson was sent to Perth by his Queensland owners in May when news of changes to local metropolitan handicapping levels filtered through.
An M3 class horse in Brisbane, Robinson was one of a number of Queensland metro class horses sent to Perth as MO class horses in this State.
He is the only former Queenslander that has proved up to winning at Gloucester Park to date with his first-up win over Abercrombiedreamer and Motoring Aldebaran on August 29th.
Motoring Aldebaran proved the worth of that formline when he finished strongly to finish second in Tuesday nights $30,000 Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cup at the Golden Mile Harness Racing Club’s feature meeting.
2005 Golden Nugget winner on comeback trail
Tartary Gladiator was rated one of the most exciting prospects in Western Australia when he beat Adams Mate and the dead-heaters Global Force and Spicey Hot in the Group One Golden Nugget 4yo Championship at Gloucester Park on 8th April 2005.
After that memorable win Tartary Gladiator had just one subsequent start for a win at Pinjarra in September 2005 in a restricted class standing start event at Pinjarra.
He broke down shortly after that win and it has only been the patience of owner Ernie Mondello and trainer Kevin Keys that sees the son of Legacy Of Power return to Gloucester Park on Friday night in the City Of Perth Conditioned Handicap.
Tartary Gladiator will start from the 10 metre handicap mark over the 2096 metres and while he is the class runner of the field his ten opponents all have a significant advantage in terms of race fitness and form.
Keys has given Tartary Gladiator a couple of standing start trials at Byford in recent weeks and last Sunday he was a close fourth (beaten five metres) to Baby Jack after finishing fifth to Australian Pacing Championship winner Dartmoor the previous Sunday.
Although he has the record of a very good horse with 12 wins and three placings in 17 starts and a little over $100,000 in stakes one can but wonder at what Tartary Gladiator could have achieved had he not been injured.
That years Golden Nugget winner Adam’s Mate has gone on to take a 1:52.2 record in the USA and amass earnings of $278,660 while the unplaced runner Non Commital now has a 1:49.8 record in the States and earnings of $458,126 including some $90,000 this year.
Non Commital was part of a piece of history in the 2005 Golden Nugget in that he too was involved in a dead-heat in that race – for sixth place with Million Dollar Girl – giving the race two dead-heats.
