Byford harness racing trainer-reinsman Aldo Cortopassi has Showstopper racing in sparkling form and the six-year-old mare has sound prospects of notching her seventh win from her past eight starts when she starts from the No. 3 barrier on the front line in the Ross North Homes Pathway Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Showstopper was most impressive at Northam last Saturday night when she started out wide at barrier seven and did all the work when she raced in the breeze, some three to four lengths back from the tearaway pacemaker All About Pink. She revealed excellent fighting qualities when she finished determinedly to hit the front in the final 25m to win by a length from Nightwatch Lady and Donegal Kahlum, rating 1.55.5 over the 1780m trip.
She also started out wide at barrier seven in a 1780m event at Northam nine nights earlier when she raced four and three wide in the early stages and then in the breeze before winning from Jasper Whitby.
Showstopper is sure to receive plenty of opposition from the John Oldroyd-trained Mynameskenny, a smart four-year-old who has won at nine of his 21 starts. Mynameskenny faces a stern test from the outside (No. 9) on the front line. He was gallant in defeat over 2130m at Gloucester Park last Friday week when he pulled hard in the breeze for much of the way and fought on grandly to finish a head second to the speedy Bhagwan at a 1.56.2 rate over 2130m.
Others with each-way claims include the polemarker Loaded Aussie, who has been placed at four of her past six starts for Byford trainer Linda Hamilton, and Luminosa, who scored an impressive all-the-way win at a 1.57.1 rate over 1780m at Northam for trainer-driver Kristian Hawkins last Saturday night.
by Ken Casellas