Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Outstanding trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo described Copy Cat Queen’s high speed as electric after driving her to an effortless victory in the Thank You Tim Walker Free-For-All for fillies and mares over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“She has been lightning lately, and I will be setting her for the $100,000 Westbred Classic for four-year-old mares on September 5,” he said.
Copy Cat Queen was the $1.30 favourite from out wide at barrier eight when she was restrained at the start and settled down in seventh position in the field of nine.
Polemarker Jaxs Ideal ($17) led for the first 400m before Chris Voak dashed Sweet Vivienne ($14) to the front, and at the bell Copy Cat Queen was in eighth position before Copy Cat Queen swamped her rivals to burst to the lead with 200m to travel and go on and win by two lengths from $23 chance Rebline, who finished solidly after enjoying the favourable one-out, one-back position.
The final quarters, off the front, were run in 28.2sec. and 28.7sec. and Copy Cat Queen rated 1.55.7 in notching her fourth win in a row and her fifth win from five starts in her current campaign.
In all those five wins Copy Cat Queen has unleashed a dazzling late burst, and De Campo said that it would be interesting to see how she performs when driven differently.
“When we have to, we will test her by driving her in a field,” he said. “She is more mature this time in, and we should be able to use her a bit. Tonight, I went a bit earlier than she has been driven in her previous wins. I went at the 700m instead of the 500m.”