Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr is bubbling with confidence about Chicago Bull’s winning prospects in the $50,000 J P Stratton Cup over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night, declaring that the pacing superstar is at his peak for another clash with rising star Shockwave.
“Chicago Bull has been jumping out of his skin since his win in the Navy Cup,” Hall said.
Chicago Bull was at his awesome best in the Navy Cup last Friday week when he raced outside the pacemaker Galactic Star before careering away to win effortlessly from Bletchley Park at a 1.53.7 rate over 2130m a week after finishing a half-head second to Shockwave in the 2536m Brennan Memorial.
This week Chicago Bull will start from the No. 4 barrier on the front line, with Shockwave at barrier two on the back line.
“Shockwave went super last week and I’m glad we’ve got the draw advantage over him this week,” said Hall. “It’s hard not to be confident about Chicago Bull’s chances this week after his latest start. And there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be going as good again. So, I’m pretty confident.
“It will be a good race and the early plan will be to go forward (at the start). I reckon The Bird Dance from barrier one should be able to hold the others in the early stages and then you would imagine that he would be happy to sit on Chicago Bull. If The Bird Dance tries to hold out Chicago Bull, it would be detrimental (to his prospects).”
Chicago Bull should notch his 56TH victory and give the Hall of Fame father and son combination of Gary Hall senior and junior their fifth win in the Stratton Cup after scoring with Bengeeman (2002), Alzona (2011), Waylade (2015) and Chicago Bull (2018). Chicago Bull also finished third behind Shandale and Soho Tribeca in the 2017 Stratton Cup after working hard in the breeze for the final 1200m.
Four-year-olds Shockwave and The Bird Dance are expected to provide plenty of opposition for Chicago Bull, with Shockwave chalking up his 16TH win from 39 starts when he led from barrier one and cruised to victory over Chiaroscuro and Our Jimmy Johnstone in the 2536m Media Guild Cup last Friday night.
The Bird Dance has won at 16 of his 24 starts and star trainers Greg and Skye Bond produced him in fine fettle for his first-up victory last week. He is sure to be improved by that run. His reinsman Ryan Warwick has yet to taste success in the Stratton Cup, but the Bonds have won the event with Russley Rascal (2012) and Vampiro (2019).
Vampiro, who finished strongly to win by a head at $17.20 from stablemate and $2.50 favourite El Jacko in last year’s Stratton Cup, was handled by Colin Brown, whose previous wins in the race were behind Demoralizer in 2007 and Russley Rascal.
The Bond stable has four runners in this year’s Cup The Bird Dance (Warwick), Vampiro (Dylan Egerton-Green), Galactic Star (Brown) and Ocean Ridge (Deni Roberts).
Ocean Ridge is a consistent five-year-old, but he faces a tough task on Friday night from the outside barrier (No. 9).
