Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Hoppys Way made the most of a significant drop in class when he relished his role of pacemaker and scored a comfortable victory in the 2130m Barbagallo Aston Martin Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Though placed once from his previous five starts, he was a firm $1.70 favourite from the prized No. 1 barrier but had to be driven hard to withstand a spirited challenge from $71 outsider Longreach Bay, who was smartest into stride from barrier five.
After resisting this challenge leading reinsman Shannon Suvaljko was able to get Hoppys Way to relax and amble through the lead time in 38.3sec. and the opening quarters in 32.1sec. and 31.9sec. before final 400m sections of 29sec. and 28sec.
Hoppys Way, trained by Mike Reed, went on to win by just over a length from $15 chance Sugar Street, who dashed forward from sixth at the bell to move to the breeze 500m from home.
“There was a bit of pressure early from Longreach Bay, and then when Junior (Gary Hall Jnr) jumped on to my back with Tommy Waterhouse, that horse was my only danger. And we got it easy with slow early sections.
“Hoppys Way is versatile over all distances, and the faster they go, the better he goes.”
Hoppys Way, purchased for $NZ65,000 as a yearling in New Zealand, has earned $220,188 from 13 wins and eleven placings from 53 starts. He has revealed his class by leading and finishing second to Tricky Miki in the 2022 WA Derby, setting the pace and finishing second to Wonderful To Fly in the Group 1 Four-Year-Old Classic, and finishing fourth behind Tricky Miki in the Golden Nugget.
He is by Art Major and is out of Bettors Delight mare Joannes A Delight, whose younger full-brother Jack’s Legend amassed $1,183,002 from 44 wins and 57 placings from 159 starts. He won ten races in New Zealand, was successful once from two starts in Australia, and won another 33 times in America.