Bernardo Bowl Sizzles In Grade 6 Final
Wednesday
Howling Hoss is closing in on his fourth birthday and started the Wednesday meeting with a terrific performance over the 643m trip. In the small field, he started favourite despite drawing box four. After having to do a little bit of work early to get to the front, he got their and set up a small margin. Spring High Low was right behind him for most of the race, but Howling Hoss proved too good and kicked away at the end in a slick 37.67 gallop. That was his 18th career win as he nears $40,000 in total prize money, he has certainly been a good dog!
Three heats of a maiden series were run with some impressive performance shown from a few youngsters. Chilli On Ice (Fernando Bale x Crazy Again) ran the quickest winning time of the three heats, with the Renata Maruszczyk trained chaser making amends for an unlucky debut run. From box two, she jumped nicely to get herself to the lead and built a small margin as they approached the turn. She was challenged around the turn but kicked clear, to win strongly in 23.19. The final next week should be a good one!
The Mike Wittholz trained Cold Pursuit only recently stepped up to the ‘500m’ racing and has shown that it is much more to his liking than the shorter trips. On Wednesday, the black dog scored his first success over the trip, with a powerful effort from a wide box seven. He jumped fairly and was sitting third as they went into the first turn. Going up the back straight, Cold Pursuit was three lengths off the leader but was working through his gears nicely. It was a slow grind for a while as they turned for home, with the son of Dashing Dee Dee slowly wearing down the leader. It took a while but in the shadows of the post he took over and got the win, running a good 31.06. Dashing Dee Dee was a stayer herself and this guy is certainly showing enough to suggest that he might become one in the future.
Friday
On a cracking Friday afternoon at Gawler, the Gawler Classic was the feature with the $2800 to the winner final drawing a great field together. The highly promising Bobby Axelrod started a red hot favourite from box seven and when the boxes opened, punters would have had their hearts sink when the White and Brindle dog missed the start. Thankfully for him, Springvale Dave who was drawn to his inside, did a good job of holding up the rest of the field which allowed Bobby Axelrod to balance up and work his way to the front before they left the first turn. It was all over from there as Bobby Axelrod waltzed away and won comprehensively in 30.55. His trainer Dillon Robinson has done a great job with the chaser and also made it a double for the day when Abernathy won the last in a slick 22.81 and given that he was first up a few months, it was a good training effort.
Another feature race on the program was the grade 6 final over the 400m trip with quite a few heats run last week. The field brought together was a ripper and the winning performance was just as good. Bernardo Bowl drew quite poorly with box five, but the black dog proved to be a complete class above the others, with an outrageous all the way victory. After leading with a hot 8.60 first split, he was really moving up the back and had quite a margin on the others. By this point it was all eyes on the clock and it stopped in a flying 22.42, which was the best of the day and two lengths quicker than Toby West ran, so it certainly matched up well!
Richard Pearce hasn’t been training Spring Monica for a long time and on Friday she had first venture into middle distance racing, when she drew box one for the grade 6 over the 643m trip. From the kind draw, she started favourite and punters would have been quite happy to see her out in front early. She was doing it nicely until the last turn, where she had a few closing in and her strength was to be questioned. Around the home turn, she found another kick and increased the margin before going through quite well. It was an impressive 37.98 effort and not the last time she is winning over the middle distance you would think.