Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
New Zealand-bred five-year-old Hugotastic improved his Australian record to four starts for four wins when he raced without cover before finishing strongly to beat the frontrunning Ruby Lou in the $27,000 Garrard’s Horse And Hound @ Redcliffe Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The Sweet Lou gelding, trained by Michal Young, was the $1.30 favourite from the No. 6 barrier, and he was driven with supreme confidence by Gary Hall Jnr, racing three wide before getting to the breeze after just over 500m.
Hugotastic was not fully extended in getting to the front in the finals stages to beat Ruby Lou by a half-length, rating 1.57.8 over 2130m after final quarters of 27.3sec. and 28.7sec.
“Ruby Lou was travelling strongly coming into into the bell, but Hugotastic has very good point-to-point speed and was able to get alongside the leader very quickly,” said Hall.
“And when he did that down the back straight to get level with Ruby Lou, I was confident of beating her. Hugotastic got a little bit lost on the last bend, but he then dug in and got to the front in the home straight.”
The win took Hugotastic’s record to seven wins, seven placings and stakes of $89,282 from 18 starts.