Champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr lavished praise on Texas Tiger after driving him to an effortless victory in the Direct Trades Supply Four And Five-Year-Old Championship at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“He is unreal and I’m excited about his future,” he said. “I don’t know how good he is because he is really unassuming. He just keeps producing.”
The New Zealand-bred four-year-old, prepared by champion trainer Gary Hall Snr, is unbeaten at his first six starts in Western Australia and gives every indication that he will develop into a leading candidate for the rich feature events, the Fremantle Cup and WA Pacing Cup, next summer.
“He is a really good horse and was fantastic tonight,” said Hall Snr. “I think he could be the best horse Steve and Tina Chapman and their family has raced.”
That is praise indeed, considering the Chapmans have enjoyed great success with other pacers by American Ideal, with My Hard Copy, the winner of the 2015 and 2016 WA Pacing Cups and the 2018 Fremantle Cup, now standing at stud with a record of 27 wins, 23 placings and $1,271,592 in stakes from 89 starts.
The family also enjoyed 13 wins with Runrunjimmydunn before he was sold to America, and My Carbon Copy has won ten races and been placed 14 times from his first 33 starts.
Friday night’s victory was a notable triumph for the bold plan hatched by the Halls, who seriously considered making a bold bid for the early lead from the No. 5 barrier in the 2130m event.
“We know that Texas Tiger has brilliant gate speed, but we were a bit worried whether he could cross Bletchley Park from the No. 1 barrier,” said Hall Snr. “I don’t know that they (the connections of Bletchley Park) expected us to have a go (for the lead), but we threw caution to the wind and the result is pretty good.”
Bletchley Park, a noted frontrunner, was favourite at $1.85, with Texas Tiger representing great value at $3.90. Bletchley Park, driven by Lindsay Harper, led for the first 120m before Texas Tiger burst past him and into the lead.
The lead time was a modest 37.7sec. and Texas Tiger settled beautifully and was able to amble through the first quarter of the final mile in 31.1sec. before moderate 400m sections of 30.4sec. and 29.7sec.
With $18 chance Silent Major racing comfortably in the breeze, Bletchley Park was hopelessly blocked for a run in the final circuit and finished third behind Texas Tiger and Silent Major, with the final 400m being covered in 27.3sec. and Texas Tiger rating only 1.58.
“Texas Tiger had really good gate speed in New Zealand, but then he would pull,” said Hall Jnr. “However, he has been pretty good for us (in that regard).”
Regarding the comparatively slow speed of the race, Hall said that Texas Tiger was not extended and could have paced at that tempo for eight laps.
The win gave Hall Snr a record sixth victory in the Four And Five-Year-Old Championship after scoring with Love Of Glory (1990), Zakara (1991), Make The Rules (1999), Northview Punter (2014) and Chicago Bull (2018).
By Ken Casellas