There was plenty of quality harness racing at Gloucester Park in Western Australia over the weekend and here are three horses to blackbook for future meetings.
Not all blackbookers should be horses running on strongly and one of these is the complete opposite as he was tired near the line.
Danieljohn – 3rd at Gloucester Park on July 15
Danieljohn has always been a good metropolitan horse. His record of 22 wins and 29 placings from 92 starts attests to that. The seven-year-old gelding is ready to win a race once he draws a better barrier. On Friday night, Dylan Egerton-Green drove him perfectly to land three back on the fence and he hit the line really well when gaining clear running with 100m left to travel. It was a pedestrian affair, but Danieljohn covered his final 800m in 55.3 seconds. He has now qualified for The Chandon Final and if he can lead in that, they probably won’t see which way he went while he can also be lethal from a cold sit close to the speed in M2-M4 company.
Naughty Maravu – 7th at Gloucester Park on July 15
Five-year-old gelding Naughty Maravu was beaten 22.1m in a standing start even on Friday night. He was massive in defeat though after making a three-wide move with 1800m left to travel. Looking for the breeze position, Naughty Maravu was denied that spot by Pelusiac and forced to race three-wide without cover for the remainder of the event. The last mile was run in 1:56.9 and Naughty Maravu was entitled to be beaten 50m or more. He even had the cheek to almost draw level with the leaders at the 450m mark but knocked up late. This horse has high-speed and is not known for his toughness, so to show as much fight as he did was excellent.
Raffaello – 4th at Gloucester Park on July 15
The Peter Kimberley-trained five-year-old gelding Raffaello had no chance of beating class runners Kiwi Legend, Gaz Wannabet or Harry Hoo. Sitting last the 800m mark, Raffaello made a three-wide move at the 550m mark and started to make ground around a number of rivals. While he couldn’t sprint with Harry Hoo (a superior horse), he comfortably got past the likes of Lovers Prayer and Look Down Charlie. He clocked a final 800m of 56.1 seconds and didn’t lose any ground on Kiwi Legend who ran his final 800m in 56.2 seconds. Raffaello is a C4-assessed pacer and can claim a race in the country or a C1-C4 race in town from a good barrier draw.
REPLAY: Race 9 – MS PACE – 2130m
By Trent Orwin