Four-year-old Balcatherine, the least experienced runner in the $40,000 WASBA Breeders Stakes at Gloucester Park on Friday night, has sound prospects of notching her fifth harness racing win at her tenth start after drawing the inside of the back line.
This draw is certainly not ideal, but it should ensure that she does not have to work as hard as she has at her past two outings that have produced excellent seconds to Millwood Molly and The Buckeye Bullet.
Two starts ago Balcatherine began from the No. 2 barrier on the back line and raced three wide before getting to the breeze after 550m and then obtaining a favourable passage in the one-out, one-back position and then running home with great determination to finish second to Millwood Molly.
Then, last Friday night she started out wide at barrier seven and Gary Hall jnr dashed her forward in the early stages to work hard in the breeze outside The Buckeye Bullet for more than two laps before finishing second to that smart pacer over 2536m when the final quarters whizzed by in 27.7sec. and 27.6sec.
With a softer run this week Balcatherine should be able to unleash a powerful finishing burst and give champion trainer Gary Hall snr his third victory in the WASBA Breeders Stakes, after wins with The Alchemist in 2014 and Ideal Alice in 2016.
Friday night’s field is extremely even, with several mares having solid winning prospects. Astute Henley Brook trainer Mike Reed has strong winning prospects with four-year-old Arma Indie, who has drawn ideally at barrier two on the front line in the 2130m event. He has also won the race twice, scoring with Libertybelle Midfrew in 2015 and Maczaffair in 2018.
Arma Indie, to be handled by Shannon Suvaljko, started from 10m in the Race For Roses last week and raced in the breeze for much of the way before wilting to sixth behind Semiramide. She is a good frontrunner and has sound prospects of leading this week, particularly as Delightfulreaction has drawn the No. 1 barrier.
Delightfulreaction has started from barrier one four times — over 2130m at Gloucester Park in June 2018 when she sat behind the pacemaker and finished a nose second to Soho Interceptor, over 1684m at Pinjarra in January 2019 when she sat behind the leader and finished sixth behind Typhoon Tiff, over 2569m at Bunbury in April 2019 when she led and finished fourth behind My Prayer, over 2185m at Pinjarra in August 2019 when she raced three back on the pegs and finished fourth behind Ana Afreet.
Delightfulreaction is one of two runners for Capel trainer Aiden de Campo, with Millwood Molly from barrier six also a winning prospect after two wins and a second placing at her past three starts, including a smart all-the-way victory over Balcatherine last Friday week.
Delightfulreaction raced four back on the pegs in an Indian file formation in last week’s Race For Roses in which she was eased off the pegs with 750m to travel and got to the front 130m from home before being overhauled in the final stride by Semiramide.
Another four-year-old, Typhoon Tiff, will start from barrier five and is well worth considering at her third appearance after a spell. She was a first-up winner on April 9 when she set the pace and beat Millwood Molly and Pick My Pocket. Her trainer-driver Colin Brown has won the WASBA Stakes with Sand Pebbles (2004), Montel (2008) and Little Big Sister (2010).
Champion reinsman Chris Lewis has won this event five times with Tareena Bright (1985), Armbro Lucy (1993), Twinkle Paige (1997), Meggie Dear (2001) and Sheer Rocknroll (2017). He will drive the Annie Belton-trained Gotta Go Gabbana, who faces a stern test from out wide at barrier eight.
Ken Casellas