Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Star mare Nevermindthechaos will complete her preparation for the $75,000 Empress Stakes on Friday week when she contests the $26,000 SEFS The Asset Finance Specialists Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Her clash with the brilliant Wonderful To Fly promises to be a highlight of the eight-event program. Wonderful To Fly, part-owner, trained and driven by Shane Young, will be making her first appearance as a four-year-old after winning at 21 of her 34 starts as a two and three-year-old.
Wonderful To Fly warmed up for this week’s race with a comfortable trial win over 2185m at Pinjarra on Thursday March 9 when she dashed over the final 400m in 27.2sec. Wonderful To Fly will start from the No. 4 barrier, with Nevermindthechaos at No. 5.
“I can’t afford to leave Wonderful To Fly alone,” said reinsman Gary Hall Jnr. “So, it will be handlebars down at the start. We’ll be attacking because I don’t think that Wonderful To Fly can afford to go with me for too long, not the way she couldn’t handle work the last time in.”
The Michael Young-trained Nevermindthechaos should have an edge in fitness on Wonderful To Fly, having had eleven starts in her current campaign for five wins and four placings. She trailed the pacemaker Three Rumours in the 1684m Golden Girls Mile at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon before finishing with great determination to be a head second to the frontrunner.
“Nevermindthechaos was running up the track the whole way, so I didn’t want to go to the sprint lane,” said Hall. “She was making up ground on the line. It’s hard in those races (sprints) with the leader getting away with a bit, and Three Rumours is a pretty good mare.”
Simply Shaz (barrier two) and Sheez Our Hope (outside barrier in the field of eight) are racing keenly. Lindsay Harper will drive Simply Shaz, after her regular reinsman Trent Wheeler took a drive in all of the eight events at Narrogin on Friday night.
Simply Shaz finished with a strong burst to win from Nullarbor Navajo and Miss Boudica over 2130m last Friday night. Pinjarra trainer Mike Cornwall has produced Sheez Our Hope in fine fettle for her five starts after a long spell, and the seven-year-old will pay to follow. She raced in the breeze when a fighting third in Monday’s Golden Girls Mile.
Hall and Young are hoping that Im Themightylucy will return to form when she starts from the No. 2 barrier in the 1730m Catalano Truck And Equipment Pace. The four-year-old Im Themightylucy has been disappointing in her current campaign, with five unplaced Gloucester Park runs preceding her appearance in modest company at Bridgetown on Sunday when she finished third in a three-way photo finish with the pacemaker Blockjorg and Alta Hurrah.
Im Themightylucy was last in the field of six in the back straight in the final lap before being forced four wide at the 400m mark and five wide on the home turn.
“A third at Bridgetown doesn’t read well for an assignment at Gloucester Park on a Friday night,” said a philosophical Hall. “On her best form she would probably start favourite and win on Friday night. But she’s not just there, and is a long way off it.
“She didn’t handle the track at Bridgetown all that well and was a bit scratchy in her gear all the way.”
Im Themightylucy is the youngest and least experienced runner in Friday night’s race, with her 17 starts producing seven wins and three placings. Her nine rivals are experienced campaigners who have had a combined total of 1090 starts (an average of 121 starts) for 113 wins.
Hall and Young have sound prospects in the second event, the SEFS Pace over 1730m, in which they will be relying on a strong performance from Kimble from barrier five. Kimble reappeared after a four-month absence last Friday night when he was seventh, three back on the pegs, at the bell before finishing solidly to be second to Classic Choice.
“It was a promising effort and a win is probably not too far off,” said Hall. “With luck, he can finish in the top three. Last week he seemed to be a bit more switched on than he was the last time in.”