All eyes will be on Gloucester Park this Friday night when the best of the two-year-olds go head-to-head in the $150,000 Group 1 Golden Slipper, but only one can be crowned the winner, who will it be?
Gary Hall Jnr had the choice of three drives in the feature, with D Mac NZ drawn in two, 2YO Westbred Classic winner Ideal Beach drawn alongside in barrier three, and Im Stealthy NZ out wide in barrier eight, and Hall Jnr has confirmed that he will take the drive on board D Mac NZ.
“I was probably always going to just drive the horse that got the best draw.
“I have a lot of time for Ideal Beach, he is one of the nicest two-year-olds I have driven.”
Hall Jnr mentioned that he doesn’t believe there is much between the three drives he was offered in the feature, stating that he was very impressed with Im Stealthy NZ after Monday’s success at Pinjarra.
Hall will be hoping to lead all the way on Friday night with D Mac starting from barrier three, who is the least experienced horse going into the race.
D Mac NZ has had just the two starts, and just one in WA, but won impressively 12 days ago in the Golden Slipper prelude.
The other Hall Snr runner, Im Stealthy NZ will be driven by Stuart McDonald, but will have to overcome barrier eight.
Jack Callaghan has secured the drive on the impressive Justin Prentice Prentice trained Ideal Beach for the feature.
“He hoppled yesterday and felt really good. He looks great, I’m happy with him.
“It looks hard to beat that one of Juniors (D Mac NZ) going on the way it went first up, there’s probably improvement in it, and it’s drawn inside of us, which makes it pretty hard, but I guess you never know, there are some horses drawn out wide that have got pretty good gate speed, I don’t know if they’ll go forward of not.
“I wouldn’t say I’m confident, but I’m confident with where he is at, I’m really happy with him.” Prentice said.
Talented gelding El Mystro copped an early blow in the barrier draw when he landed barrier seven in the feature, a draw that trainer Robbie Williams predicts will be extremely hard to overcome.
“He’s been dealt cruel draws in all the big races this year.
“D Mac looks awfully hard to beat from the draw. Hopefully we can position up well early and finish strongly.
“He’s super talented, just needs a little luck in running.”
El Mystro heads into Friday’s race with three wins to his name from just seven starts, with the son of Lather Up USA finishing second behind Ideal Beach in the Gr1 Pearl Classic at just his fourth start on August 15.