Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Star reinsman Aiden De Campo has succeeded in his bid to drive quality colt Grevis in the $150,000 Channel 7 Golden Slipper at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and the son of Lazarus is at the top of his game and has excellent prospects of giving the 31-year-old De Campo his first win in the Group 1 classic for two-year-old pacers.
De Campo successfully applied to the RWWA stewards for a three-day reduction in a 16-day suspension for causing interference in a recent race.
Grevis, who will start from the inside on the back line, has finished in the top three in all his nine starts, for two wins, three seconds and four thirds.
At his most recent appearance Grevis, trained by De Campo and driven by Trent Wheeler, trailed the pacemaker Waverider and finished second to his stablemate Menemsha (handled by De Campo) in the Group 1 Westbred Classic for colts and geldings last Friday week.
Menemsha has a slight leg injury and will not contest the Golden Slipper in which the De Campo-trained Ideal Muscle will start out wide at barrier No. 9 on the front line, with Wheeler in the sulky. Ideal Muscle ran home strongly, out wide, to finish an encouraging third in the Westbred Classic.
Brilliant Capel trainer Justin Prentice will be bidding for an unprecedented fourth successive victory in the Golden Slipper when Gary Hall Jnr drives Manhattan Moon from the favourable No. 2 barrier on the front line.
Prentice trained and drove Mighty Ronaldo and Tricky Miki for their fast-finishing Slipper victories in 2020 and 2021 before Hall drove the hot favourite and Prentice-trained Never Ending to an easy all-the-way win over Skylord and Lusaka last year.
Hall, who also won the 2014 Golden Slipper with Beaudiene Boaz, has driven Manhattan Moon five times for a Pinjarra win, three Gloucester Park seconds and one Gloucester Park fifth placing.
Dylan Egerton-Green drove Manhattan Moon in a 2130m event at Gloucester Park last Friday night when the gelding, a $26.70 chance, enjoyed a perfect run in third place, three back on the pegs, before finishing strongly to win by a length from Arma Believe.
Hall is in devastating form in the sulky, and his faithful fans cashed in handsomely when he drove four winners at Bunbury on Wednesday afternoon. He scored with Heartofahlia ($2), Ekara Navajo ($1.20), Never Ending ($1.04) and Disco Dynamo ($59.10).
Egerton-Green has two runners in Friday night’s big race, Grand Couteau and Cork Can Run. He will drive Grand Couteau from the No. 3 barrier on the front line, and he has engaged Chris Lewis, fresh from his 6000TH victory at Pinjarra on Monday, to handle Cork Can Run from the outside of the back line.
“Grand Couteau ran the quickest last half (28.56sec.) in the Westbred Classic for fillies last Friday week,” he said. Grand Couteau put up a tremendous performance to finish fourth behind Xceptional Arma. She was eleventh at the bell and was hampered by a punctured sulky tyre.
Grand Couteau and Xceptional Arma are the only fillies in Friday night’s classic. Egerton-Green said he expected both fillies to perform strongly, pointing out that Xceptional Arma rated 1.56.8 in winning the Westbred Classic for fillies and Menemsha rated 1.56.7 in winning the Westbred Classic for colts and geldings.
“Grand Couteau is a nice little sit and kick horse, and if they go hard, I’m sure she will be getting home good,” he said.
Xceptional Arma, to be driven by Maddison Brown, will start from barrier five. She has won at six of her eleven starts for trainer Colin Brown, who has won the Golden Slipper as a driver with Western Apache (2003) and Ohokas Bondy (2010).
Fillies face a tough task, with only eight winning in the 55-year history of the classic, Sordice (1968), Omista (1971), Via Vista (1980), Mazzini Magic (1988), Whitbys Miss Penny (1990), Whitbys Merit (1993), Spirit Of Navajo (2005) and Arma Xpress (2012).
Lewis holds the Golden Slipper record as a driver — with eight victories — with Pardon Me Boys (1987), Harry Gunn (1995), Saab (1997), Talladega (1999), The Jobs On (2004), Aikido Whitby (2006), Western Cullen (2011) and Jack Mac (2017).
Egerton-Green does not dismiss the claims of Cork Can Run, saying: “He went very well when held up and finishing fourth behind Menemsha in the Westbred Classic.”
Champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond will be pinning their hopes on Vegas Strip (barrier four), Ten To The Dozen (barrier nine) and Thelittle Master (barrier two on the back line).
The Bond stable has won the Golden Slipper with Ohokas Bondy in 2010 and Mitch Maguire in 2016. Deni Roberts, who finished third with the Bond-trained Lusaka in last year’s Slipper, will handle the New Zealand-bred Vegas Strip, who has raced three times in Western Australia for all-the-way wins over 1609m at Bunbury and over 2130m at Gloucester Park and a close second to Grevis after setting the pace over 1730m.
Ten To The Dozen, a winner at five of his 12 starts, will be driven by Stuart McDonald, and Mitch Miller will drive Thelittle Master, who also has won at five of his 12 starts.
Katie Howlett trains the polemarker Brought To Light, who will be driven by Chris Voak. She will be hoping to emulate the performance of her father Barry Howlett, who prepared Jack Mac for his brilliant victory in 2017.
Ryan Bell trains the speedy Heez A Vibe, who will start from the No. 6 barrier with Kyle Symington in the sulky. Heez A Vibe gave a sample of his class four starts ago when he led and won from Franco Encore and Menemsha.