Chicago Bull’s absence has opened the door for the next wave of open class pacers to score a Free-For-All victory in this Friday night’s Rotary Club Of Fremantle Pace (1730m).
The Gary Hall Snr-trained Chicago Bull was back to his brilliant best in last week’s Free-For-All, but connections decided against running him for a third straight week.
Despite not having Chicago Bull engaged, the Hall Snr team will still be well represented in the $25,000 event with six of the 12 runners.
Perhaps the most intriguing of the six is the evergreen nine-year-old My Hard Copy, who will line up for the first time since August last year.
The two-time WA Pacing Cup champion made a brief cameo last winter, before being sent for a spell.
He has barrier eight for his return on Friday night with Clint Hall booked for the drive.
Campora finished third behind Whozideawasthis and Chicago Bull two weeks ago and gets a golden opportunity to score at Free-For-All level this week from barrier one.
King Of Swing has put in two solid performances at Free-For-All level over the past fortnight and Gary Hall Jnr has elected to drive him, signalling he could be the best of the stable’s half-dozen.
The 2018 WA Derby winner will have his work cut out from barrier six though, given speedy runners Vultan Tin and Im Soxy are on his inside.
Whozideawasthis will start from barrier 12 in this week’s event and brings the most consistent recent form at the level to the race.
The in-form Tact Major and Zennart are the other Hall Snr-trained runners in the race.
Vultan Tin had to settle for second after he led against Chicago Bull last week and looks a chance of being able to find the front from barrier four this week.
Im Full Of Excuses and Back To The Beach represent the Ross Olivieri stable in the event, but haven’t enjoyed their best run of form of late.
Maczaffair was another of the runners to be well beaten by Chicago Bull last week, finishing 16m adrift in fifth place.
The Mach Three mare is third-up this week and looks set to get the ideal run from barrier 10.
Reinsman Mark Reed said he wasn’t overly concerned by last week’s performance, but was hopeful the five-year-old would improve this week.
“Her run first-up was really good,” he told GPTV.
“She was a bit flat last week, but she normally takes a few runs to get to her top.”
Reed said he was hopeful noted front-runner Campora could hold the front.
“It’s not a bad draw for her inside the back line, providing Campora can hold up,” he said.
“She should get a good trip, it just depends if she sees daylight at the end or not.”
Luis Alberto, who has been more than competitive at Free-For-All level of late, rounds out the strong 12 horse field.
Tim Walker