Champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond look set to dominate the $200,000 WA Derby next Friday night when their brilliant New Zealand-bred gelding Bettor Fortune will clash with several stablemates, including Mad Monday, who ran a slashing trial for the classic with an effortless victory in the Fibreglass Shower Specialists Derby preview at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The Victorian-bred gelding, driven by Stuart McDonald, surprised as a $22.50 chance when he raced in seventh position, one-out and two-back, before sprinting home stylishly to win by just under a length from stablemate Rumble Strip ($3.10), with $21 chance Elite Fleet finishing strongly from the rear to be third.
“I drove him as a two-year-old and won a race with him late last year when he definitely wasn’t as well mannered and as tractable as he is now,” said McDonald.
“I was relatively confident he was going to be in it at the finish the way he was travelling. But I wasn’t expecting that he was going to steam past the others like they were standing still and win by such a margin.
“I was shocked by the way he pulled away from them and do it so easily on the line. I got out three and four wide around about the 400m to the 300m and he was able to run down Rumble Strip quite easily.”
However, Rumble Strip performed admirably. After a fast lead time of 35.5sec. Rumble Strip worked hard outside the pacemaker and $2.90 favourite Charivari, who lost the lead to that gelding 600m from home and faded to finish a distant last, 53 lengths from the winner.
Runkle Crunch ($3.70) was an unlucky fourth after trailing Charivari and then being hampered for room in the final circuit before getting into the clear in the final stages.
Mad Monday is by former star pacer Vincent and is the fourth foal out of Richly Deserved, who had 31 starts for three wins, three thirds and $14,836. Mad Monday was unplaced at his four Victorian starts as a two-year-old, and his five wins and three seconds in WA have taken his earnings to $47,792.
Maximum Rock, trained and driven by Chris Voak, returned to form with a vengeance with a runaway win in the $23,000 Noel Mulholland Pace over 2130m. He was a $3.30 chance who dashed to an early lead and bowled along in front before winning by five lengths from Dark Eyes ($4.40), who finished solidly from last at the bell.
“I needed to make a statement tonight to get Maximum Rock back into the reckoning for a start in the Golden Nugget,” said Voak. “I lost him a bit when he got sick, but he is fine now and he had plenty left on the line.”
