The build up to next month’s two-year-old Pearl Classic continues at Gloucester Park tomorrow night when a select field of colts and geldings clash in the Moonstream Information Services Pace (2130m).
Fresh from winning both De Campo Memorials at Bunbury last Saturday, trainer Aiden De Campo has two runners engaged in the event, while Greg and Skye Bond and Michael Young also have multiple runners set to line up.
The Bond team will be represented by The Final Offer and Chugach in the event, where they had contrasting fortunes drawing barrier one and six respectively.
The Final Offer, to be driven by Tom Nally, has trialled twice ahead of his debut tomorrow night and co-trainer Greg Bond said he hoped for a competitive showing on debut.
“We quite like him,” Bond told Racing WA Harness.
“He’s related to the likes of Delightful Offer, Bettor Offer, Can’t Refuse and a mare we also had Unconditional.
“We knew he was going to draw well in this race, and he’s paid up for the Pearl, so we though we’d let him have this run and see how he goes.
“I would think we would probably drive him conservatively this week.”
While The Final Offer has the better draw, his stablemate Chugach has race experience on his side going into the event.
The gelding finished an unlucky seventh to stablemate Slay Queen first-up, where his winning chances diminished when he was checked in the concluding stages.
Bond said he expected Chugach was going to play a part in the finish before bad luck struck.
“Deni (Roberts) said he was all dressed up with nowhere to go,” he said.
“We had to drive him conservatively first-up over the mile given the speed drawn inside of him.
“He was still going to find the line well until the other horse galloped.
“I expect him to be competitive on Friday, and he should be competitive in the Pearl too.
“We were quite taken by his first two or three efforts and he’s definitely our number one seed.”
De Campo has Crunchem and Bettor Behave in tomorrow night’s event.
Mitchell Miller drives Crunchem, who he also drove to finish fifth in De Campo Memorial, and said he expected him to keep improving as his preparation wore on.
“I thought he was good,” Miller told TABradio.
“He improved a fair bit from his trial.
“I know Aiden likes the horse a bit, but he probably just needs the race experience to take his manners further.
“He might be a better horse as an early three-year-old.”
Meanwhile, 34 fillies have been nominated for Monday’s Diamond Classic heats.
Wishing Belle, who produced a stunning performance to win the De Campo Memorial, headlines the nominations.
Livy Ann, Slay Queen, Cinch and Ma Petite Dame were also among those entered for the series.
Tim Walker
Image - Pacepix