Nathan Williamson set to play major role at Invercargill

By Jonny Turner

The best horse isn’t necessarily the best bet among Nathan Williamson’s strong book of drives at Ascot Park on Friday.

Williamson takes several winning threats from his own team to the meeting and he links up with a stellar line up of outside drives.

When asked which of all of those horses looked the biggest winning chance, the trainer-driver had to qualify his answer.

“I would have to say Bill Bootit is probably the best winning chance,” Williamson said.

“But Castello De Vide also looks a great chance as well.”

“Nice One Kenny is probably the best horse I am driving, but I am not sure whether she can win with the way the race is set up.”

Bill Bootit starts Williamson’s day when stepping out in race 1.

The trotter made a mistake in his last start before being freshened.

Williamson is hopeful the trotter can trot throughout this time, despite drawing the often tricky barrier 1.

“Before he galloped in his last start I would have said he is pretty foolproof,” Williamson said.

“But since then, we have made a lot of changes with him.”

“I have been really pleased with his training and I am pretty confident he will do things right.”

“If he does, you would like to think he would be pretty hard to beat.”

Castello De Vide ran his best race in some time when second in the Bluff Cup on Monday.

The pacer drops in grade when taking on impressive debut winner Frisky Styx in race 3.

“We will be looking to make use of the draw (5) advantage we’ve got (over Frisky Styx).”

“He got out of the gate pretty good on Monday, so hopefully he can do that again.”

“He went 2.41 (for 2200m), so if he was able to lead he would take a bit of catching.”

Mr Cash Man is another of Williamson’s drives looking to make use of a workable draw.

The pacer looks perfectly placed in barrier 3.

“If he was able to work to the front he would be hard to beat.”

“He is a horse that is not known to have a heap of gate speed, but it does look a winnable race for him.”

Onwardsandupwards (race 4), Stillyourshot (race 6) and Our Golden Kenny (race 8) each look genuine winning threats for Williamson on Friday.

Superfast (race 7) has claims despite copping a tough draw and while Velocity Jet (race 5) is down on form, he slots into a winnable race.