Prentice’s Classic Pair
28 February, 2018
Harness
Trainer Justin Prentice is no stranger to success in two-year-old feature races, and this Friday night he is set to play a key role in the Fillies edition of the Sales Classic (1730m).
Prentice, who took out the race last year with Tenniele Erin, has Delightfull and Has No Fear engaged in the $100,000 event, where the latter is coming off a strong win in her heat last week.
Prentice purchased Has No Fear for $20,000 at last year’s Australian Pacing Gold sales at Belmont Park, while Delightfull was passed in for $30,000 before Prentice picked her up.
Thomas Buchannan retains the drive on Has No Fear, and Prentice said he has been impressed by the filly’s development this campaign.
“Each run she has got better, and her last one was definitely the most impressive,” he said.
“She was off the fence and had to come three-wide at the 400m, then the way she ran away from them at the end was the most pleasing part.”
Has No Fear, a daughter of Western Terror, has drawn barrier 10 on Friday, while Delightfull has drawn barrier three.
Prentice said he couldn’t have asked for better draws for the pair.
“The horses drawn in gate one and two probably aren’t super quick,” he said.
“Hopefully Has No Fear gets no bad luck early and Tom can put her into it late.
“Delightfull has got an ideal barrier draw for her where we can get up on the speed.”
Prentice said he had found it hard to split the pair in there early work, but Delightfull had been disadvantaged prior to last Tuesday’s heat due to a battle with illness after her first start.
“We didn’t get a lot of time to put much work into her,” he said.
“Delightfull did it purely on ability last week.”
Prentice rates the Kat Warwick-trained Cap In Hand as the one to beat on Friday, but said he expected it to be a lot more of a test than what the unbeaten filly has encountered in her two starts thus far.
Friday night’s Sales Classic program starts a busy weekend in harness racing in Perth, with Belmont Park hosting the APG Sales on Sunday.
Prentice described the catalogue of 108 yearlings as “quite strong”.
The sale gets underway at 1pm on Sunday, while the Sales Classic races at Gloucester Park on Friday night to jump at 7.42pm and 8.07pm.
Tim Walker