Five-year-old Our Ideal Act, the least experienced runner in the $23,000 Garrard’s Horse And Hound BOTRA Cup, has an outstanding harness racing record in standing-start races and he has the ability to overcome the 20m handicap and win the 2503m stand at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The New Zealand-bred gelding, owned and trained by Greg and Skye Bond, has won 11 times from just 23 starts, with nine of those wins in stands — two from nine starts in New Zealand and seven from 14 starts in Western Australia.
Our Ideal Act bounced back to his best form three Fridays ago when he started from 10m and was 11th with two laps to travel. Ryan Warwick then sent him forward and he sustained his three-wide burst to be fifth at the bell before he sprinted over the final two 400m sections in 28.6sec. and 28.3sec. to get up in the final stride to defeat the pacemaker Importer Exporter.
That was his tenth win from his past 15 starts. He is by American Ideal and is closely related to former star mare Tupelo Rose, who retired with a fine record of 101 starts for 35 wins and 25 placings for stakes of $1,146,603 Our Ideal Act is out of In Hollywood, a full-sister to the brilliant Tupelo Rose.
Tupelo Rose won 12 races in New Zealand, 12 in Australia, one in Canada and ten in the United States. She won five group 1 and two group 2 events in New Zealand and her Australian victories included the Victoria and Australian Oaks at Moonee Valley in 2000.
The Bonds also have another strong chance in this week’s Cup in nine-year-old Pay Me Cullen, who has won standing-start events at Gloucester Park and Northam at his past two outings. He will start from the 10m mark.
Chris Lewis has high hopes of winning the BOTRA Cup for the fifth time when he drives tough stayer Our Jericho for eight-time leading West Australian trainer Ross Olivieri.
Lewis has won the BOTRA Cup with Village Kid (1985), Elteei (1986), Mach Ruler (2009) and Tartary Gladiator (2011), but Olivieri has yet to train the winner of this feature event. The closest he has come was in 2010 when Lewis drove 7/2 chance Jordangarry, who set the pace and finished a close second to 9/4 favourite Albert Jaccka.
Our Jericho produced a powerful performance to win a 2503m stand last Friday week when he raced three wide for much of the journey. He then started from the outside of the back line in a mobile 2130m event last Friday night and was far from disgraced when he sustained a strong three-wide burst from the rear to finish sixth behind American Boy when the final 800m (off the front) was covered in a fast 55.4sec. He will start from 10m on Friday night.
The Michael Brennan-trained Naughty Maravu will have many admirers after several strong efforts in recent weeks. Naughty Maravu will start from 10m and will be driven by Gary Hall jun., who has won the BOTRA Cup with Strike A Blow (2002), Spirit of Shard (2008) and Classic American (2015).
Naughty Maravu was most unlucky when seventh behind Ohoka Cooper in a 2503m stand last Friday night when he was forced to race three wide without cover in third place for more than two laps.
“We had no luck at all and were history after 700m,” said Hall. “He gets his chance to make amends this week.”
Ohoka Cooper ran an excellent trial for this week’s Cup when he was eighth with two laps to travel and tenth at the bell before surging home from fifth on the home turn to win by a length from the fast-finishing Phoenix Warrior.
Ohoka Cooper (10m) is trained at Mt Helena by Ray Williams and will again be driven by Nathan Turvey.
Seven-year-old Copagrin has been set for the BOTRA Cup and part-owner and trainer John Guagliardo has high hopes of a first-up victory after the gelding’s impressive workouts in trials at Byford on the past two Sunday mornings.
Ken Casellas