Cortopassi Excited By Future Stars
Trainer Ray Williams and stable driver Aldo Cortopassi share a lifetime of harness racing between them, however, the long-time teammates currently have some of the nicest horses they’ve ever been involved with at their disposal.
Williams prepares exciting stablemates Cyclone Banner, To Fast To Serious and Magnificent Storm, all of whom Cortopassi is the regular driver for, and the trio have combined to win 13 races within the past eight weeks.
High-speed four-year-old Cyclone Banner, a Bettors Delight gelding, has been victorious at 10 of his 22 starts in WA, while To Fast To Serious – a Shadow Play four-year-old — has been first past the post at 11 of his 16 race outings.
Supremely talented three-year-old Magnificent Storm is yet to taste defeat from his six public appearances since arriving in WA earlier this year.
Speaking on TABradio’s One-Out One-Back program on Tuesday, Cortopassi couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for the promising pacers.
“Ray’s got a really strong team at the moment and they’re some of his flagship horses so it’s good to be associated with them all,” Cortopassi said.
“Cyclone Banner is versatile, he has good high speed but can sit and sprint just as well.
“It doesn’t really matter where he draws too much and he’s probably got a little bit stronger now which means we can drive him a little bit more positive than we did in his last campaign.
“Magnificent Storm’s just gone out for a short spell and he’s getting set for the four-year-old races.
“He’s the real deal and I think he’s going to be a major player in them, so I’m really looking forward to him getting up and racing against some of the better four-year-olds when they come up at Christmas.”
Asked how Williams’ budding trio compare to Total Defiance, a pacer who Cortopassi trained and drove to 23 victories and earnings of $231,265 in the late 2000s, he says they may have the measure of one of his all-time favourites.
“Total Defiance and Cyclone Banner are probably similar types of horses, but he always lacked that top-end speed,” he said.
“To Fast To Serious just has speed to burn so when he draws it doesn’t matter really if he draws well or draws poorly, he’s got the speed to really round up a field quickly.
“I think Magnificent Storm is going to have it at both ends.
“He’s got fantastic gate speed and when we sat him up in a trial when he first came over he really hummed in the last quarter.
“He’s got gate speed and he’s got the ability to sit up and sprint quickly as well, so I think those two horses are probably going to go a lot further than Total Defiance did.”
Looking ahead to Tuesday night’s Gloucester Park meeting, Cortopassi spoke about his drives aboard Allwood Wizard, Starlight Brigade and Missplay in the Perth Plasterboard Centre 2YO Westbred Pace (2130m), Cowden The Insurance Brokers Pace (2130m) and Westral Pace (2130m) respectively.
He labels the Mike Reed-trained mare, Missplay, as his best winning chance.
“I was rapt to get the call up from Mike,” Cortopassi said.
“She’s a really nice mare, I’ve chased her home a fair few times so it will be nice to be sitting behind her.
“It looks like a really good race for her on paper.
“Starlight Brigade was first-up last week with no trial and probably needed the hit-out.
“This looks like a really good race for him on paper, so we’ll run the gate hard and drive him positive and he’ll be right in the finish.
“Allwood Wizard’s got plenty of upside to him but unfortunately he’s probably his own worst enemy and I think when he has a spell and comes back he’ll be a much better horse.”
Meanwhile, driver Lindsay Harper is bullish about the chances of Eldaytona, a Somebeachsomewhere two-year-old prepared by his partner Sue Wiscombe, when the colt races second-up in tonight’s Perth Plasterboard Centre 2YO Westbred Pace (2130m).
The speedy juvenile will jump from the inside of the second line but Harper isn’t perturbed by the back-row draw.
“In a way it’s not a bad thing, it will give him another string to his bow,” he said.
“I don’t like leading with them all the time, especially the babies, because they can get very one-dimensional.
“He’s improved from his first-up run in my opinion and did need that run but went terrific.
“He showed gate speed, which we knew he had, and got worked over a little bit in the first 1000 and didn’t really get much time to himself but still ran home in 56.8 or something.
“We’ll just drive him quiet on the rail tonight and if he gets the breaks he’ll be very hard to beat.
“I think he’s got a future this horse.”
Harper will also take the reins behind Miss Vung Tau and Franco Joaquin in the Direct Trades Supply Fillies & Mares Pace (2130m) and Better Your Bet With TABtouch Pace (2536m) later in the seven-race program.
“Junior drove Miss Vung Tau dead cold last start and she seemed to like that,” he said.
“He took her back and put her on the rail and, she didn’t look any hope in the run, but she was unlucky not to win in the end.
“Franco Joaquin hasn’t been over 2500 for us and I think he’s only had one or two over that trip in his life.
“He’ll need the run and he’s probably a couple runs away from being ready.
“I think we’ll go back and put him away and just try and run the trip out.”
MICHAEL HEATON