Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Steel The Show revealed his typical toughness to win the $31,000 TABtouch Share My Bet Free-For-All at Gloucester Park on Friday night and to earn a start in the $100,000 James Brennan Memorial next Friday night.
But Deni Roberts, who drove Steel The Show to his half-head win over the fast-finishing Sangue Reale, will not be in the sulky when he contests the Brennan Memorial.
Instead, she is looking forward eagerly to driving millionaire star pacer Minstrel in his comeback race after an absence of six months.
Minstrel, prepared by leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond, will be beginning his spring and summer campaign, with the $100,000 J. P. Stratton Cup on October 25 and the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on November 8 his major targets after racing next Friday night.
“Minstrel has had a nice, long spell which is something he hasn’t had in the four years he has been in WA,” said Roberts. “He is going really good, is ticking over nicely, and is in a really good head space.”
Minstrel has had 62 starts for 24 wins, 19 placings and $1,038,908, and among the highlights of his wonderful career are his win in the Golden Nugget in February 2021 and finishing second to Catch A Wave in the inaugural Nullarbor slot race in April this year.
Steel The Show was the $4.20 second fancy from barrier four in Friday night’s Free-For-All, in which the polemarker Soho Dow Jones was the $2 favourite.
Steel The Show had been unplaced at his six starts, mainly in stronger company, leading into the race, and Roberts planned to use the seven-year-old’s strength to advantage by softening up the opposition.
Soho Dow Jones was smartest to begin, and Roberts quickly sent Steel The Show forward to race in the breeze and apply pressure on Soho Dow Jones.
After the second quarter of the final mile was covered in 29.3sec. the next two 400m sections were run in 27.9sec. and 28.8sec. Steel The Show got to the front 120m from the post and he held on to beat the $5 chance Sangue Reale by a half-head, rating 1.56.5. Sangue Reale was sixth at the bell and he sprinted home brilliantly.
“Steel The Show hadn’t had a (favourable) draw in most of his recent starts, and I was happy to be able to drive him like I did tonight,” said Roberts. “It was a race in which we could be more positive, and he put in a much stronger performance. He’s tough and doesn’t mind doing work in his races.”
Steel the Show, a winner of six races in New Zealand, has excelled under the care of the Bonds, and he now has a splendid record of 79 starts for 16 wins, 23 placings and $420,751.