GARY Hall Sr’s amazing 11th training triumph in the $300,000 Group 1 Fremantle Cup saw his emerging star Mister Smartee make his mark on this year’s Australian Grand Circuit.
Although his Nullarbor win a week earlier didn’t count as a leg of the series, the 100 points Mister Smartee snared for last Friday night’s Fremantle Cup win moved into a clear fourth spot on the points table.
He trails only three biggest names in Aussie pacing: Leap To Fame (120 points), Swayzee (120) and Don Hugo (110).
Although Mister Smartee will miss the Brisbane Inter Dominion, the five-year-old will get a hometown chance to build on his Grand Circuit points tally later in the year in the $450,000 Group 1 WA Pacing Cup on December 12.
Mister Smartee’s emergence has been stunning.
He won the Nullarbor and Fremantle Cup double at just his 22nd and 23rd starts respectively.
And he has won 18 of his 23 starts.
Mister Smartee’s Fremantle Cup win came courtesy of an elite Gary Hall Jr drive.
“What can I say … he’s the best,” his father and Mister Smartee’s trainer Gary Hall Sr said.
It was Hall Jr’s 10th winning driver in the Fremantle Cup.
Veteran WA star Minstrel, who tied for second with Swayzee (behind Leap To Fame) on last year’s Grand Circuit table, earned his first points (60) with a typically brave second in the Fremantle Cup after doing all the work outside the leader.
The emerging Gee Heza Sport, who shapes as the heir apparent to Minstrel for Team Bond, followed a second in the Nullarbor with a close third in the Fremantle Cup.
The fourth leg of the seven race Grand Circuit is the $1 million Brisbane Inter Dominion final on July 19.
There is then a break until the $250,000 Victoria Cup at Melton on October 10.
The relocated $250,000 Blacks A Fake – moved from July because of the Inter Dominion at Albion Park - is the sixth leg at Albion Park on December 6.
Grand Circuit Standings
