23 August 2017
PAUL MICALLEF
FORMER Kiwi pacer Our Novak will have plenty of admirers at Bathurst tonight after being desperately unlucky at Dubbo last Sunday.
The four-year-old gelding was held up behind a wall of horses all the way down the straight when an unextended 10m fifth to Belligerence.
He was caught three back on the pegs courtesy of the inside of the second line draw and his advantage tonight is that he gets back to the front line.
With the gelding’s trainer Amanda Turnbull back in the sulky, Our Novak should take full advantage of the draw and should take some running down.
Our Novak has led at some stage in three of his previous four starts since crossing the Tasman resulting with a win at Bankstown and two minor placings.
The win by Belligerence was her second in as many starts since the switch from Phesant's Nest trainer Peter Rixon to the stables of his brother-in-law Steve Turnbull.
The Mach Three three-year-old filly has appreciated the change of scenery to recapture the considerable promise she showed last season.
Tonight she has a terrific chance of completing a winning hat-trick in the space of two weeks by claiming the last race on the card.
After leading to easily win at Parkes on August 13, she repeated the dose last Sunday although it was a far much better performance.
She had to work a little harder to lead and defeated a much stronger field as she opposed all-age company.
Reverting back to three-year-old company tonight, her class drop should allow Amanda to bookend the meeting with an all-the-way win.
And in between expect the tearaway NSW leading driver to dominate the meeting with big winning chances on Sportygal, Intransit, Head And Shoulders and Alex Pollizzi.
Alex Pollizzi has drawn inside her main danger Uncle Ryan in the feature $10,200 Western Districts Sapling Stakes for two-year-olds.
The filly has been brave at her past two placings at Bathurst after racing outside the leader and should get a softer run tonight from a better draw.
Head And Shoulders and Sportygal are both well graded and will be strongly fancied while Intransit only needs to bring his A game to pose a threat in the fast class event.
Amanda is closing in on 200 winners for the season with only eight days until the end of the season.
She has driven eight winners at her past three meetings, taking her tally to 182 winners and just under $1.5m in prizemoney.