12 August 2021
What a week it’s been. Racing. Non-racing. Fires and lightning. Roughies and favourites. And more driver milestones. Memorable stuff right across the state. Here’s the week that was in this week’s edition of The Final Quarter
Star Trekkin’
Kevin Pizzuto has got his stable deadest purring of late and there was no better exhibition of that than at Penrith on Thursday night when driver Josh Gallagher said beam me up Scotty and sent Spock to a 14 metre cakewalk win. The way he’s going keep an eye out for Chronicles in the sixth on the program tonight at Penrith.
SEE SPOCK WIN AT PENRITH
Loving Louigi
You know those parents who have photos of their newborn on hand and are more than happy to show them to friends and colleagues? Well back in late 2018 that was Newcastle trainer Gary Spencer and his son Dale – who were the proud new owners of a strapping young colt named Louigi that they had bred. He was a sight to behold and Gary, who looks after the maintenance at the Newcastle track, was absolutely smitten. So when he started racing a few months ago the journey took on a new dimension. It was a tough introduction to racing too. Well beaten at 150-1 in his first two starts. So he had a break and returned at Newcastle a fortnight ago. Things had improved. Louigi ran second, beaten less than a metre by Artful Babe. Still, they let Louigi go again on Friday night and sent him out a $26 pop. Given a front-running drive by Dale, he looked gone in the straight as race favourite Ideal Mondo loomed up alongside him. But Louigi channelled his inner Mario Kart and found an extra gear to salute at a very handsome price for his backers. Father, son and beloved horse. The wholesome Friday night narrative you just love to see! Now there’s a new Louigi photo in the frame. Well done Gary and Dale!
LOUIGI WINS AT NEWCASTLE
Good Charlotte
Sadly, it’s been a tough week for Charlotte Caslick. CC was full of running at Wagga’s Riverina Paceway on Friday night and swung five wide to just miss as a $1.45 favourite. Earlier in the week the legendary women’s Rugby Sevens star the Bay Mare is named after suffered a shock loss to Fiji in the quarter-finals of the Olympics in Tokyo, despite a cracking late try from Charlotte herself to almost give the Aussies a miracle come from behind win. Definitely one for the black book though. She was flying. In both codes!
CHARLOTTE CASLICK JUST MISSES AT WAGGA
Lightning Strikes
Still at Wagga and there was an eye-catching performance from Steven Harris’ second starter Lightning Bay. A fortnight after finishing a very distant last on debut, the big fella was tuned up nicely for the encore performance and looked far more at ease, delivering for the punters after being sent out as an even money favourite.
WATCH LIGHTNING STRIKE AT WAGGA
Take It to the Chapple
The Boomer generation is used to growing up with milestones from the Chappell brothers over the years. Now the millennials and Gen-Zeders can have their own Chapple moment. Yes, same pronunciation, different spelling, but a champion of the people nonetheless, especially in the north-west. Tonight at Tamworth Dean Chapple goes in pursuit of 700 career wins in the sulky and with a drive in each race on the eight-race program, it would be a brave man to think Deano doesn’t go 7-0-0.
Jack Brings Up the Double Ton
While we’re on milestones, we counted this one down for a couple of weeks and finally Jack Callaghan brought up the double ton. He notched up 200 career wins driving Walkamileinmyshoes to victory at Penrith on Thursday night!
JACK CALLAGHAN BRINGS UP WIN NUMBER 200
Family Ties in Parkes
If your name wasn’t Turnbull, Brown or Pay you went home empty handed at Parkes on Friday night. The night started off with a win to Nathan Turnbull before his sister Amanda drove the first of her two winners. Then their brother Mitch jagged himself a victory – for their Dad Steve as well - and before we knew it four of the first five winners had a Turnbull in their name. Jeff Brown chimed in with a training/ driving double but the Pay family got amongst it too. Tom and Jack both driving winners. Jack delivering on Sparky Sharky for his trainer Uncle Brett.
AMANDA TURNBULL WINS WITH ALTA MADEIRA AT PARKES
Hart-breaker Binskin
It’s not often you get a race named after you. Even less likely that you might drive the winner of the race in your honour. But that looked every chance at Menangle on Saturday night when Cameron Hart loomed on Heavenly Belle in the Cameron Hart 100 Wins This Season pace. Darren Binskin had other ideas though with Ardens Ace and swooped to grab the chocolates. It was one of those kind of party pooper weeks for Darren. His recently acquired Kiwi mare Sekkie Monkey wasn’t given much hope at Menangle on Tuesday but that meant little to Daz, piloting her to victory at $81! With Jack Callaghan’s $31 pop Law Legend running second, they combined for a whopping $951 quinella on the TAB.
WATCH SEKKIE MONKEY WIN AT MENANGLE
What Really Happened At Leeton
It was a tough night for the team at Leeton on Tuesday when their meeting had to be abandoned after just three races when a bank of lights went out in the back straight. Moments later things got even darker near the winning post. Some intrepid club members went to check out the source and noticed a circuit had shorted in one of the light towers and caused a fire. That’s no quick fix and unfortunately the remaining four races on the program had to be abandoned. So that’s the truth. Despite what you might read among any conspiracy theories on social media, we can categorically guarantee it was not because of an overdue power bill. It wasn’t related to COVID and 5G towers. Nor was it a sinister ploy to stimulate betting turnover. And it wasn’t a tactic to make club legend Bill Trembath dress up as a fireman. Although, that would be awesome! Maybe next time Bill. Racing will be back at Leeton on the 7th of September!
From Leeton … to Lleyton …
The Lleyton Green and McDowell stable duo is proving to be quite the combination. In the sulky for Dean and Kerry McDowell at Menangle on Tuesday he landed winners with Ananais and Major Obahma for the stable. Lleyton is now up to 26 wins for the season!
SEE MAJOR OBAHMA WIN AT MENANGLE
Bring on Brisbane 2032
In this week’s episode of Pacesetters, trainer Stephanie Lippiatt talked about her knack of landing winners at a price.
YOU CAN WATCH STEPH ON PACESETTERS HERE
With her partner David Morris in the sulky, they delivered again with Matai Reactor at Menangle on Tuesday. Perhaps it’s the sort of X-Factor form Steph was bringing to the Harness Racing All-Stars netball team featuring several of our female drivers and trainers. With netball making a play for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, maybe it’s time to put the squad back together?
SEE MATAI REACTOR WIN AT MENANGLE
Uroc Rick
A couple of weeks ago on The Sprint Lane, Paul talked about the stellar form of Rick Burnett’s Uroc Skinny Jeans down in Albury. Well it carried that form into a trip north to headquarters on Saturday and put a space on them, beating a quality field by 10 metres in the Ladyship Pace. This is a horse going places and we reckon if COVID wasn't getting in the way of a good time at the moment Rick would have been rocking the skinny jeans in celebration on Saturday night!
SEE UROC SKINNY JEANS WIN AT MENANGLE
Luckless Runner Of The week
Race number one on the card at Newcastle on Friday Night saw one of the busiest finishes to a race anywhere in New South Wales over the past week. With only seven metres from first to seventh you would think there would have to be a luckless runner or two? Well you’re right. Going back through the replays there was a horse that never got a crack at winning the race by the name of Buddy Clayton. After sitting in the leaders pocket, Ben Mantle was itching to get a split late with a lap full of horse. Ultimately the pair went down by 3.7 metres and had to settle for fourth, but keep an eye out for Buddy as he will be winning one soon.
NO LUCK FOR BUDDY - SEE IT HERE
MD’s Trial File
After some positive feedback we have come up with a new segment for The Final Quarter where form expert Mick Dumesny will go back through the trials throughout NSW over the week prior and try to find punters a horse to follow. This maybe a promising first starter or even a horse coming back from a break. This week he has gone to a trial at Parkes on Tuesday night and come up with talented four-year-old mare Christiano Rose who is on the comeback trail for Parkes father-son duo Kevin and Blake Medlyn.
“She looked strong in the hit out and was hard held to line after leading from wide, clocking a fast last half and a strong mile rating,” Mick said. “I think she will be hard to beat first up.”
Christiano Rose will go around Friday night in race six at Parkes and has drawn gate eight over the 2040 metres.
Drive Of The Week – Blake Micallef
Young Monteagle freelance junior reinsman Blake Micallef gets the nod as our DOTW for his efforts aboard the easing favourite Old Luke in the fourth on the card at Bathurst on Wednesday evening. Drawn the inside of the second line, punters had taken a set against the chances of the Amanda Turnbull trained pacer after the speed map appeared to have the horse buried away along the fence. And that is the way it played out. But when put in the sticky situation, Micallef never panicked and at the top of the straight things started to open up which enabled him to navigate the eight-year-old through a gap and come down and score an easy 1.5 metre victory clocking a mile rate of 1:55.7.
WATCH BLAKE MICALLEF WITH HIS DRIVE OF THE WEEK
Big Bets
BATHURST 4/8
BANG!
$5,000 @ $1.55 on Old Luke
OUCH
$2,280 @ $2.30 on Yum Cha
PENRITH 5/8
BANG!
$2,000 @ $3.90 on Oh Daddy
$1,500 @ $1.60 on Marika Springfield
OUCH
$4,000 @ $2.15 on Ed Mendes
$1,350 @ $1.33 on Pocket Book
WAGGA 6/8
BANG!
$2,000 @ $5.50 on Hell Of A Memory
OUCH
$4,000 @ $1.45 on Charlotte Caslick
$1,000 @ $6 on Endless
PARKES 6/8
BANG!
$2,650 @ $1.45 on Girl Just Fly (Place)
NEWCASTLE 6/8
BANG!
$3,000 @ $1.85 on Master Catch
OUCH
$2,000 @ $3.80 on Buddy Claydon
MENANGLE 7/8
BANG!
$1,000 @ $3.50 on Ardens Ace
$1,000 @ $2.40 on Soho Tsunami
OUCH
$2,000 @ $4 on True Confessions
$2,000 @ $1.75 on Platinum Revolution