Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Brilliant WA-bred pacer Tricky Miki will resume after an absence of 20 weeks and will face a stern first-up test when he contests the $50,000 SEFS Preux Chevalier Four-Year-Old Classic at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He will start from the outside barrier in the field of eight and is sure to receive spirited opposition from the highly-promising New Zealand-bred gelding Street Hawk, who is favourably drawn at barrier three for his fifth appearance after a spell.
Tricky Miki, trained by Justin Prentice, has been a superb performer as a two and three-year-old and he has amassed $324,450 from eight wins from 14 starts, including three group 1 successes (the Golden Slipper, Westbred Classic for three-year-old colts and geldings and the WA Derby) as well as victory in the group 2 Western Gateway.
On the other hand, the Greg and Skye Bond-trained Street Hawk has yet to be successful in a group feature event. He goes into Friday night’s group 3 event with a significant advantage over Tricky Miki — raced hardened after four impressive efforts at Gloucester Park in his current campaign of a first-up win followed by three seconds in races in which he covered a considerable amount of extra ground.
Street Hawk is a brilliant frontrunner, and Deni Roberts is sure to be hellbent on bursting to an early lead and then dictating terms in front. There appears to be a good chance that the drivers of the two pacers drawn inside Street Hawk will be happy to take a sit.
Bill Hayes trains and drives the inexperienced New Zealand-bred gelding Lucca, who will be making his first appearance at Gloucester Park after winning at one of his three New Zealand starts and then winning at his first three WA starts — at Narrogin, Pinjarra and Bunbury before his last-start third behind Peter Petrify at Pinjarra on Monday of last week when he set the pace.
Lucca will start from barrier one, and Kyle Symington will handle the Nathan Turvey-trained Eton Rock from the No. 2 barrier. Eton Rock has good gate speed, and he led when a close third behind Roll Up and Alcopony over 2130m at Gloucester Park two starts ago.
Star reinsman Gary Hall Jnr is looking forward to Tricky Miki’s return to racing, saying: “Initially he was a sit-and-kick horse but then after gaining experience he showed all the other strings to his bow.
“I would say Tricky Miki will be driven for one (late) charge at them. Street Hawk will be hard to beat.”
Infinite Sign, a stablemate of Street Hawk, warmed up for Friday night’s race with a smart all-the-way victory over Peter Petrify over 2185m at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. He will start from the No. 6 barrier with Dylan Egerton-Green in the sulky.
The Miki Taker (barrier five) and Alcopony (barrier seven) are racing keenly and will have admirers. Trainer-reinsman Aiden De Campo is pleased with The Miki Taker’s three runs after resuming from a spell.
The Miki Taker followed a first-up Pinjarra win with a fourth behind Benji at Gloucester Park after working hard in the breeze, and then put up an excellent performance last Friday night when he settled down in tenth position and sustained a strong three-wide burst from eighth at the bell to finish third behind El Chema and Street Hawk.
The Kevin Keys-trained Alcopony ran home solidly from ninth at the bell when fourth behind El Chema last week. He finished strongly when a close-up second to Roll Up the previous Friday, and he finished powerfully two starts before that to win from Street Hawk and Ifeel Sikdarl in the $30,000 Warwick Pace.