Bell Young Gun To Buck The Odds
While much of the interest in trainer Ryan Bell’s team at Gloucester Park tonight will centre around Shockwave in the Past Presidents Cup (2130m), two-year-old Whataretheodds is looming as a key player in the Allwood Stud Farm Westbred Classic (2130m).
The gelding has endured a tough run with barriers in feature two-year-old races, highlighted by barrier eight in the Sales Classic and barrier seven in the Pearl Classic a fortnight ago.
Despite drawing barrier two, the closest he’s drawn to the rail in his career, tonight, he still has a big task in front of him to score a well-deserved feature race win.
Whataretheodds has Sales Classic winner Floewriter drawn to his inside, while Pearl Classic placegetter Rock On Top has drawn the inside of the back row in 10.
Bell said he would keep it simple with his promising youngster tonight.
“The simple plan is we will hold our position and that’s where we are staying,” he told TABradio.
“If we start giving up where we start from, we are just going to get shuffled back.
“He will come out of the gate a little bit and hold his position and that’s our best chance of earning.”
Whataretheodds has recorded four wins and two second placings in eight career starts.
The only two occasions where he finished outside the placings were the Group 1 Sales Classic and Pearl Classic.
Bell said he felt Whataretheodds, to be driven by Michael Grantham, was good enough to do sit in the breeze and still win the $100,000 feature.
“I think we’ve proven we can,” he said.
“He’s run his best races leading and in the breeze controlling the race and rolling along.
“He’s still got a good 56 or 57 half in him.
“He’s a good colt but so are the rest of them.”
Meanwhile, Shockwave will have to overcome barrier seven in the Free-For-All feature, following an outstanding win in last week’s Winter Cup.
The five-year-old is a $1.65 favourite with TABtouch, ahead of the Greg and Skye Bond-trained pair Patronus Star ($2.80) and Mighty Conqueror ($5).
Bell said he would be happy to press forward from the wide draw but conceded it would be a far greater task than last week.
“The bottom line is we are coming up against two quality stablemates,” he said.
“We don’t want to be carving each other up but we want to take control of the race in some form.”
Tonight’s Gloucester Park meeting gets underway at 5.22.
Tim Walker
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