Oakford trainer Shane Tognolini is continuing his wonderful run of successes with former Eastern States pacing mares --- and his most recent acquisition Nutbush Girl chalked up her fifth win in a row when she scored an effortless victory in the $21,000 Barbagallo Motoring Excellence Pace over 1730m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Four-year-old Nutbush Girl is following the footsteps of Tognolini’s recent speedy mares Angel In White, Blaze Coops and Xcite Me.
Nutbush Girl is proving a bargain for her owners, Tognolini’s daughter Samatha Thompson and Debra Musgrave, wife of Gloucester Park course farrier Reg Musgrave.
“Nutbush Girl is proving to be a cheap buy, costing $15,000,” said Musgrave. After two starts in Sydney for a win on debut at Menangle in May last year when she won by three lengths at a 1.54.8 rate, followed by a seventh at Penrith when she overraced badly, the mare was sold to her WA interests.
After a first-up sixth at Pinjarra in late September Nutbush Girl has set the pace and won five races in a row, one at Pinjarra and the other four at Gloucester Park, for earnings of $32,678.
Kyle Harper, who has driven Nutbush Girl in all her WA starts, said that once the mare began smartly from barrier three and got to the front after 100m that it was “game over.”
Nutbush Girl rated1.54.6 with quarters of 28.8sec., 30.5sec., 27.9sec. and 28.6sec.
“I put the whip away half way up the straight, and she had another second up her sleeve,” said Harper. “The question mark now is how far she can go; we haven’t found the bottom of her yet. Tonight, she rattled off some pretty good sectionals.”
Nutbush Girl is by American sire American Ideal and is the third foal out of Art Major mare Hazels Girl (six starts for two wins, two placings and $20,520). Hazels Girl’s dam Miss Hazel was a star performer who had 29 starts for 15 wins, eight placings and $310,063.
Miss Hazel’s victories included two at group 1 level, the APG final for three-year-old fillies at Moonee Valley in December 2006 and the New South Wales Oaks at Harold Park in February 2007 when she defeated Fleur de Lil and Amongst Royalty.
Angel In White won seven times at Gloucester Park in 2022, and she earned $139,296 from her seven wins and 14 placings from 52 starts for Tognolini.
Blaze Coops, a winner of two races in Victoria, three in NSW and two in Queensland, had 52 starts in WA for Tognolini and Musgrave for eight wins, ten placings and $84,982, with Harper in the sulky for her final five WA victories. Her career was ended when she was badly injured in a race at Gloucester Park in February this year.
The New Zealand-bred Xcite Me has been driven by Harper in her five WA outings for three wins and $29,746 in stakes.
