Star pacer Elegant Christian will resume harness racing after an absence of 79 days when he contests the $23,000 Spring Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night — and trainer Clive Dalton declared that the six-year-old was spot-on and ready to win first-up.
Elegant Christian’s clash with the richly-talented Bettors Fire, a stylish winner at his past two starts, will be the highlight of the ten-event program.
Bettors Fire, trained and driven by Kyle Harper, has shown dazzling gate speed from the No. 4 barrier at his two latest outings before setting the pace and winning comfortably.
However, Dalton is confident that Elegant Christian will prove too speedy from the prized No. 1 barrier and will set the pace.
“Bettors Fire is a good horse, but he can’t cross Elegant Christian from barrier seven,” Dalton predicted. “I don’t think he’s got any hope of crossing, not from out that wide. From a bit closer, maybe.
“Elegant Christian begins quickly and the plan will be for Clint Hall to allow him to bowl along in front, like he normally does. He’s very forward, probably about 85 per cent, and that’s a forward 85 per cent.
“Barrier one is a perfect draw for him, first-up. He’s forward enough to win. He wouldn’t be going around if I didn’t think he could win.”
Dalton returned to Western Australia almost three weeks ago after a three-and-a-half-week holiday in Croatia, Ireland and England. Six horses in his stable, including Elegant Christian, remained in work.
“Elegant Christian had ten days off after his latest start (when fifth behind Run Oneover in the 2536m Winter Cup on July 1) and then I worked him before going away on holidays,” Dalton said. “Erin Tapper worked him and kept him ticking over while I was away. He’s had a lot of long, strong work.”
Elegant Christian and Bettors Fire will be two of Western Australia’s best prospects for the TABtouch interdominion championship series in November and December.
“That’s the pipe dream — to try to win the interdominion with Elegant Christian,” Dalton said. “He’s sound and he certainly won’t disgrace himself. I’ll space his runs before the series starts. I’ll probably start him fortnightly. And then when it’s interdominion time the cotton wool will have to come off.”
The New Zealand-bred Elegant Christian has done all his racing in Western Australia and leg problems have restricted him to just 34 starts for 19 wins and seven placings for earnings of $301,129.
Everything is in his favour for Friday night’s 2130m event. He has won first-up four times; 14 of his wins have been over 2130m and he has led in 15 of his victories.
Admirers of Bettors Fire will pin their faith in the New Zealand-bred eight-year-old and will be confident that the gelding’s three splendid runs since resuming from a spell will give him a decisive edge in fitness over Elegant Christian.
Bettors Fire notched the 29th win of his 71-start career last Friday night when he began brilliantly and jumped straight to the front from barrier four. He then was under not the slightest pressure at any stage of the race, with an extremely slow lead time of 39sec. and modest opening quarters of the final mile in 30.9sec. and 30sec. before sprinting the next 400m sections in 28.7sec. and 26.9sec. to win by a neck from The Bucket List.
Two weeks earlier, Bettors Fire was not extended in leading and winning the 2536m August Cup from Run Oneover and Cyamach.
Our Ideal Act, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, ran a good trial for this week’s feature event when he worked hard in the breeze before finishing strongly to win by three lengths from the pacemaker That’s Rite over 2536m last Friday night. The six-year-old fared badly in the random draw and will need a good slice of luck to overcome the disadvantage of barrier eight.
The Michael Brennan-trained This Time Dylan will start from the inside of the back line with Maddison Brown in the sulky. The evergreen 11-year-old was an 18/1 chance when he finished fast for reinsman Justin Prentice to snatch a half-head victory from the 5/4 favourite Northview Punter in the Spring Pace 12 months ago. He has built up a losing sequence of 38 since then.
Ken Casellas