Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Outstanding three-year-old Cyclone Jordy has the class to overcome a wide barrier at No. 7 and win the $50,000 Retravision Caduceus Club Classic over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
A victory would extend his winning sequence to ten. He won at his final appearance in New Zealand and is unbeaten at his eight starts in WA.
He is prepared by master trainer Gary Hall Snr, who has won the Caduceus Club Classic eight times — scoring with Almagest (1990), The Falcon Strike (2001), Ulrich (2004), Gracias Para Nada (2012), Northview Punter (2013), Elegant Christian (2014), Beaudiene Boaz (2015) and Im The Black Flash (2023).
Cyclone Jordy’s driver Gary Hall Jnr has won the classic seven times, with two of his winners — Latte (2003) and Alberts Fantasy (2006) — being trained by Mike Beech and Jason Fry, respectively.
“It’s never easy from barrier seven, but Cyclone Jordy is good enough to overcome that draw,” said Hall Jnr. “He is so versatile; he gets off the gate really good, he can sit up and go really well, and he can breeze if we have to.”
Cyclone Jordy was not extended, as usual, when he dashed straight to the front from the outside barrier in a field of five last Friday night and set a moderate pace before sprinting over the final 400m in 27sec. to win by a length and a half from Control The Room, rating 1.57.4 over 2130m.
The Hall stable also will be represented by the highly promising Scooter B, who was a sound first-up third to Cyclone Jordy last week after winning very easily at his first two WA starts, at Bunbury and Pinjarra, late last year, following a win at Auckland’s Alexandra Park in September. He will be driven by Stuart McDonald from barrier four.
The most serious opposition for the Hall runners is sure to be the Greg and Skye Bond-trained Belly Up, whose 15 starts have produced five wins, five seconds and one third placing. Belly Up, to be driven by Deni Roberts, fared poorly in the random draw and will start out wide at barrier eight.
Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice will be looking for a strong first-up performance from the polemarker Paint the Palette, who will be driven by visiting Sydney reinsman Will Rixon. “We will be trying to hold up before sitting on Cyclone Jordy,” said Prentice.
Paint The Palette was a winner at Pinjarra on debut last August before his following five runs produced two seconds, one third and two fourth placings.
Trainers Aiden De Campo, Ryan Bell and Dylan Egerton-Green have two runners in Friday night’s race, with De Campo choosing to drive last-start Pinjarra winner Last Hard Copy (barrier five) ahead of Seaside Magic (Joey Suvaljko; barrier ten).
Bell’s runners are Control The Room (Kyle Symington; barrier two) and Wicked Hustler (Ryan Warwick; barrier three) and Egerton-Green will drive Captain Stirling (barrier six), with that colt’s stablemate Full Swing Denario to be handled by Trent Wheeler from barrier two on the back line.