Prentice holds a strong hand
14 July, 2016
Harness
Ken Casellas – Gloucester Park – Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice holds a strong hand in the $18,000 Premier Avan Maxxi Pace for three-year-old fillies at Gloucester Park with four of the 12 runners — Maia Maguire, Maidenimpression, Millwood Molly and Im Zuleika.
The New Zealand-bred Maia Maguire is showing steady improvement and though awkwardly drawn at barrier five on the front line, she appears to have sound winning prospects for reinsman Chris Lewis.
Maia Maguire warmed up for this week’s race in good style with a convincing victory over 2569m at Bunbury last Saturday night. She raced three wide early before dashing to the front with two laps to travel. After a slow first half (64.7sec.) of the final mile Maia Maguire increased the tempo and impressed when she sped over the final quarters in 28.6sec. and 27.8sec. to win by more than two lengths from Allthewaytothebank.
Gary Hall jun. will drive Maidenimpression, who notched her third win from seven starts when she raced in sixth and last position for most of the way before finishing powerfully to get up in the final stride to win the Dainty’s Daughter Classic by a head from Jasmin Amal at a 1.57.4 rate over 2185m at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. The final quarters were run in 27.5sec. and 29.3sec.
Maidenimpression will need a slice of luck to overcome her wide draw at No. 8 on Friday night. Millwood Molly, a fast-finishing winner at Gloucester Park at her debut two starts ago, had every chance when fourth behind Maidenimpression on Monday. She will start from the outside of the front line on Friday night.
Im Zuleika, a winner at two of her 12 starts, will begin from the inside of the back line and should be prominent.
The David Thompson-trained Jasmin Amal has drawn favourably at barrier one. She ran on from fifth at the bell to hit the front 50m from the post when a head second to Maidenimpression on Monday. The Ross Olivieri-trained Sheer Rocknroll set the pace in Monday’s race and was far from disgraced in finishing a close-up third to Maidenimpression. Her 24 starts have produced eight wins and eight placings and she has excellent each-way prospects from barrier three on Friday night.
Many punters will also pin their faith in Our Gamma Lady (barrier six) and Shes Artful (seven). Our Gamma Lady, trained and driven by Nathan Turvey, chalked up her fifth win from 15 starts when she gave a bold frontrunning display to win by more than three lengths from Usual Chaos over 1684m at a 1.56 rate at Pinjarra on Monday.
Shes Artful, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, covered a lot of extra ground before scoring an easy first-up win at Northam three starts ago. She sustained a spirited finishing burst when third to Straight Thru Blue over 2185m at Pinjarra on Monday.