Aussie News - 8 June

By Adam Hamilton 

THE next couple of days are crucial for comeback star Hectorjayjay.

Stewards stood-down the rising 10-year-old, noting he pulled-up with soreness, after lacklustre fifth at Albion Park last night.

But trainer Jack Butler told managing owner Matt McClellan “it doesn’t look anything too serious.”

After a sparkling win at just his second run from almost two years out, punters backed Hectorjayjay from $1.75 into $1.45 favourite and things looked good midrace when he landed the one-one trail.

But Hectorjayjay’s trademark brilliance wasn’t there and he just battled away – albeit with the leader and winner Glenferrie Hood running home in 54.7 at the end of a 1min51.9sec mile rate.

Glenferrie Hood is a fantastic story.

The rising 11-year-old son of Christian Cullen, trained by Wayne Graham, posted his 46th win from 155 starts and has passed $530,000 in earnings.

One of his biggest wins came way back on February 20, 2016 when Jodi Quinlan drove him to win the Terang Cup for trainer Ahmed Taiba.

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OUR Jimmy Johnstone is an old marvel.

The former Kiwi pacer has enjoyed a fantastic second half of his career with Greg and Skye Bond in WA.

Now a rising 11-year-old, Our Jimmy Johnstone led throughout to win another free-for-all at Gloucester Park last Friday night, beating younger stablemate Ocean Ridge by 3.2m with another eight metres away for Bletchley Park in third spot.

Our Jimmy Johnstone’s snared 31 wins and another 50 placings from his 139 starts and banked a thumping $764,311.

Gloucester Park’s feature, the Westbred 4&5YO Mares’ pace was dominated by trainer Barry Howlett, who landed the quinella with Dancing With Mach beating My Prayer.

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QUEENSLAND’S most exciting pacer Speech Is Silver sparkled again at Albion Park last night.

The former All Stars’ pacer enjoyed a lovely trip and won easily to make it five wins on end at Brisbane’s home of harness.

Overall, Speech Is Silver has won 12 of his 16 starts with another three seconds and he looks headed for much bigger things.

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THE Craig Cross and Luke McCarthy show rolled-on again at Menangle last night (Saturday).

Cross dominated the training ranks yet again with five wins on the eight race card and McCarthy drove for four of them. Luke’s younger brother, Todd, drove the other.

Cross snared the quinella in the free-for-all despite his best horses staying at home. The emerging Pocket Of Terror (Todd McCarthy) just did enough to beat a very gallant former Kiwi, Zennart (Anthony Butt), by a half-head in a 1min56.4sec mile rate for 2300m.

The romp started in the opening race for Cross when Kiwi-owned gelding Little Rascal returned to winning form for owner Ian Dobson.

Cross’s other wins came with Zahven Banner (race four), No Win No Feed (race six) and Love My Sister (race eight).

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STILL on Menangle and there’s just something a bit special about lightly-raced NSW Riverina pacer Whereyabinboppin.

The sparingly raced four-year-old sat parked and thrashed his rivals in a 1min50.6sec mile last night.

It was his first run since doing a power of work early and scorching through the middle stages when beaten into fifth spot in the Group 1 NSW Riverina Regional final at Wagga on May 22.

Connections had to switch Whereyabinboppin from trainer David Kennedy to Shane Sanderson’s barn owing to the ongoing COVID-19 racing zones in NSW.

The son of A Rocknroll Dance has won nine of his 13 starts and oozes feature open-class racing potential.

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TEAM Gath continued their recent hot Melton form streak with a treble from the seven races run last Friday night.

It was mixed bag for punters with two favourites, Ragnarr and Arden Voyager, winning.

But they delivered a knock-out blow in the last race with $81 shot Chief Runningcloud upstaging hot favourite Sammy Showdown in a slick 1min56.8sec mile rate for the short 1720m trip.

The headstrong and sometimes wayward former Kiwi pacer Arden Voyager is starting to put it all together for owner Norm Jenkin.

The gelding blazed to the front from the outside draw and kept running for a flying 1min54.9sec mile rate over 2240m.

Arden Voyager’s won four of his past five runs and now 10 of his 29 lifetime.

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BLAKE Fitzpatrick loves his trotters and snared the trifecta in the NSW 2YO Trotters’ Foundation final at Menangle last night.

There’s no doubt KerryAnn Morris’ buzz youngster Aldebaran Ursula should have won, but she made an early mistake while leading and did a huge job to get trotting again and run fourth.

Manners are so much with baby trotters and Fitzpatrick’s On Advice (by Swedish stallion Sebastian K) did everything right and won well over stablemates Fancy and Lucky Charm.

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THE exporting restrictions of COVID-19 have been something of a blessing for trainer David Aiken.

Well, at least in the case of his recent stable addition Leonidas.

The four-year-old was sold to US owner Steve Finkelstein after some fantastic Menangle runs around Miracle Mile time, but found his way to Aiken’s stable when unable to head to across the US.

Leonidas’ six runs for Aiken have netted four wins and two excellent seconds to Australia’s most exciting pacer, Lochinvar Art.

Leonidas bettered his CV again when he scorched around Bendigo in a track record 1min51.7sec for 1650m last night (Saturday).

On the same card, Brent Lilley’s recent Kiwi import Robbie Royale made it three wins from four Aussie runs.

The six-year-old stepped well off a 10m handicap, Chris Alford took him around to the lead and just kept rolling.

Robbie Royale won as he liked by 7.7m and smashed the track record with a 1min59.8sec mile rate for the 2150m standing-start.