Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Bank on Lallan to deliver the goods

David Thiselton
Clairwood has a racemeeting tomorrow (Tuesday, August 31) and the most interesting race could be the eighth, a competitive Novice Plate over 1 900m.
The Gavin van Zyl-trained Lallan doesn’t have an easy task on paper, being 4kg out with the second top-rated horse in the field, the Herman Brown-trained Young Caesour, who beat her by four lengths over 1 600m the last time they met and is now only 1kg worse off. However, Young Caesour must have question marks over this distance being out of a West Man mare who won over 1 000m.
On the other hand this West Man mare did produce the Mogok filly, Young Champion, who won a maiden over 1 900m so some will reckon she can see out the trip. Lallan has improved in her last two starts.
She went close over 2 000m at Greyville in June, beating Tricia's Spur by a head. She is now 4kg worse off with Tricia's Spur, but is well drawn in two while the latter has the widest draw of all in the ten horse field.
In her last start, Lallan ran well over 1 800m at Clairwood and the form looks fair. The Mike Bass-trained We Have Lift Off is not the easiest horse to train, but has settled down at his Clairwood base and is now coming into her own.
She was beaten 2,6 lengths by Young Caesour in her penultimate start over 1 600m and went close last time over 1 600m.
However, she should enjoy this step up in trip. An interesting runner is the Neil Bruss-trained Lady Lecture, who is actually the best in at the weights on official merit rated terms, being 1kg better off with Young Caesour.
She won on debut over 1 600m last August and the second horse won next time out, while the third horse was a long way further back.
In her comeback run in February she was well beaten but in her third start after another break she ran very well over 1 450m here at Clairwood, just 4,2 lengths behind the promising Miss Zummerudd.
She should have come on from that run and is likely to relish the step up in trip. The Mike de Kock-trained Gibson Girl ran a fair race first time out the maidens over 1 950m from the widest draw of all at Scottsville.
She warrants respect from a good draw this time.
However the selection is Lallan to win from We Have Lift Off with Lady Lecture, Gibson Girl and Young Caesour nest best.
The horse that will be most looked forward to by race fans on the day will be the impressive looking Mike Bass-trained Castlethorpe, who runs in the fourth, which is a maiden over 1 450m.
This Australian-bred is by Not A Single Doubt out of a Sadler's Wells mare so is likely to enjoy the step up in trip.
In his two starts to date, both over 1 200m, he first finished just 3,9 lengths back to Draconian in one of the strongest recent maidens and was then out-dueled by the promising Charles Laird-trained Galileo’s Destiny. Anton Marcus gets the ride and he is well drawn.
Mike de Kock had an Argentinian-bred first-timer by Hennessy winning under Kevin Shea at Clairwood yesterday and he has another one in this race, also with Shea aboard. He is well drawn and any betting support should be noted.

\| All information on these pages are (©) Copyright Gold Circle Pty (Ltd) 2002 \| site map
(This site is best viewed at 1024 X 768)