Champion reinsman Gary Hall jnr is hoping he has made the right decision to drive D Mac in the $150,000 group 1 Channel 7 Golden Slipper over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Hall opted to handle D Mac, the New Zealand-bred colt, ahead of the outstanding WA-bred Ideal Beach, a colt he has driven in all of his six starts for five wins and a second placing, and D Mac’s highly impressive stablemate Im Stealthy.
Ideal Beach, trained by Justin Prentice, has already earned $248,481 in prizemoney, and he is considerably more experienced than D Mac, who is the least experienced runner in Friday night’s event, with his two starts resulting in a splendid second on debut in New Zealand in April and a dazzling victory first-up at Gloucester Park last Friday week.
Hall was in awe of D Mac’s great natural speed in his win over Wake Up Geoff and Im Stealthy, and his choice was influenced by a favourable barrier at No. 3, with Ideal Beach on his outside at barrier four, and Im Stealthy out wide at barrier eight.
No doubt Hall will be anxious to take full advantage of D Mac’s great gate speed in a bid to set the pace. But for D Mac to win he will have to become the least experienced runner to win the Golden Slipper this century.
The previous occasion when a two-year-old won the classic at his third start in a race was when Fred Kersley jnr trained and drove the brilliant Salinger to victory on June 21, 1996. The Classic Garry colt went on to win the Golden Nugget in December 1997 and was retired soon after that with a record of 15 wins and one placing from 20 starts.
D Mac and Im Stealthy, to be driven by Stuart McDonald, are prepared by Gary Hall snr, who has won the Golden Slipper three times --- with Love Of Glory in 1989, Beaudiene Boaz (2014) and Cyclone Jordy (2024).
Prentice will be attempting to win the Slipper for the fourth time, following successes with Mighty Ronaldo (2020), Tricky Miki (2021) and Never Ending (2022).
Prentice drove Mighty Ronaldo and Tricky Miki after Hall had preferred to handle the Katja Warwick-trained Machnificent in 2020 and Youre So Fine in 2021.
Hall had driven Mighty Ronaldo at the colt’s previous outing before the Slipper when he finished second to Give Us A Wave in the group 1 Westbred Classic, and the following year he had driven Tricky Miki at his only three starts for a win, a second and a third placing.
Mighty Ronaldo was a $31.20 outsider from barrier nine when he won in 2020, and Tricky Miki was a $7 chance when he won in 2021, with Youre So Fine, trained by Hall snr, finishing third as the $2.35 favourite.
In recent years Prentice has generally preferred to concentrate on training rather than driving in races, and he has engaged brilliant young New South Wales reinsman Jack Callaghan to drive Ideal Beach.
Callaghan has recently returned from a two-month stint in America where he drove at Yonkers, the Meadowlands and the Harrah’s Philadelphia track. He landed a double at Meadowlands on his first night of race driving in America. He is probably best known in WA for his performance in finishing a head second to Betterzippit with Spirit Of St Louis in the $1 million Nullarbor in April 2023.
Leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond will be pinning their faith in Chugach, who will be driven by Deni Roberts and faces a hard task from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line. The Bond stable has won the Golden Slipper with Ohokas Bondy (2010), Mitch Maguire (2016) and Vegas Strip (2023).
Hall Of Fame reinsman Chris Lewis has won the Golden Slipper a record eight times, having scored with Pardon Me Boys (1987), Harry Gunn (1995), Saab (1997), Talladega (1999), The Jobs On (2004), Aikido Whitby (2006), Western Cullen (2011) and Jack Mac (2017).
He appears unlikely to add to his record, despite the Kim Prentice-trained Some Line drawing the prized No. 1 barrier. Some Line, placed at his past three starts, is the only non-winner in the race.
Mitch Miller will handle Prentice’s other runner, Wake Up Geoff, who is capable of a solid effort from the No. 2 barrier. Wake Up Geoff, a winner of two races, ran home strongly when a last-start second to D Mac.
Hopeland trainer Aiden De Campo has four runners in the race, and he has elected to drive Bettor Move Matty from the outside of the back the line. Bettor Move Matty has won at two of his six starts and was an excellent last-start second to Ideal Beach. His other runners, Bettor Behave (Ryan Warwick), Wheelsofortune (Dylan Egerton-Green) and American Machine (Joey Suvaljko) will be at long odds.
A forgotten runner is El Mystro, trained and driven by Robbie Williams, who is awkwardly drawn at barrier seven. El Mystro is the only pacer to have beaten Ideal Beach (when he set the pace and won by two lengths from Ideal Beach at Gloucester Park early in August). Ten nights after that El Mystro raced in the breeze and finished second to Ideal Beach in the group 2 $100,000 Pearl Classic.
By Ken Casellas