Brown Gets Chance With Bull
Maddison Brown gets a rare opportunity to steer champion pacer Chicago Bull in tonight’s Channel 7 Perth Media Guild Cup (2130m) at Gloucester Park, with regular driver Gary Hall Jnr suspended.
Brown will become the fifth driver to pilot the nine-year-old, who will have his 104th career start in the $30,000 event.
The Gary Hall Snr-trained pacer showed signs of getting back to his best form with a last start third in the WA Pacing Cup behind stablemate Wildwest.
The gelding sat in the breeze outside Mighty Conqueror and still fought on strongly to finish within a metre of Wildwest.
He faces another stiff test in the Media Guild Cup from the outside gate in the field of six.
Brown said she was looking forward to the chance to drive the $2.38 million stake earner but was concerned how the race would unfold.
“Those opportunities don’t come around that often,” she told TABradio.
“Obviously with Jnr out and Callan (Suvaljko) also getting time, I’ve had to step up tonight.
“The small field scares me a bit, to be honest.”
Chicago Bull has been a notable drifter with TABtouch from $1.60 out to $2.05, while stablemate Balcatherine has been supported from $9 into $4.40.
Balcatherine drew barrier two and Brown said she would be the testing material if she found the front.
“If she leads, she will be hard to beat,” she said.
“With Bully, we will just do nothing early and put him into it when the pace suggests.”
Brown also gets the chance to team up with several Hall Snr’s other key runners on the card, headlined by Diego and Gambit.
Diego is expected to bounce back from his unplaced finish in last week’s Lord Mayor’s Cup in the Media Guild Leading Tipster – Matt Young Pace (2130m).
The six-year-old is a $1.50 favourite with TABtouch and has drawn well in barrier two with just Tyler Brett to his inside.
Brown said she would drive Diego confidently.
“It’s a big drop in class for him,” she said.
“I think Snr wanted me to be quite aggressive with him at the start and it probably won’t be ideal for Tyler Brett, because if it wants to lead then it’ll probably cop pressure from somewhere else.”
“If we can lead, we will be hard to beat.”
Tim Walker
Image – Hamilton Content Creators
https://soundcloud.com/tabradio/gloucester-park-224893869?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing