Aardiebytheseaside NZ Photo by Pacepix
The barrier draw may not be on their side in tonight’s Gr3 The Schrader at Gloucester Park, but the Bond stable still has strong claims in the $50,000 feature, with Aardiebytheseaside NZ a class act in the field.
“We lost the barrier draw, six love, and Steno ticks a lot of boxes, gate speed, the journey, so, I haven’t put the white flag up but having said that I don’t live in Disneyland either, it’s going to be very, very hard to beat.
“I think we’re probably running for second at this point in time.”
Drawn in barrier nine, Aardiebytheseaside NZ has a tough job ahead of her, with classy mare Steno drawn in barrier one, but Tim Walker asked the question on Thursday’s Sports Daily, pushing that Aardiebytheseaside NZ was good enough to sit outside Steno and beat her.
“We’ve got a heap of faith in Aardiebytheseaside, as I said, it’s probably more being out in nine and what the horse’s underneath you elect to do early as well, if you want to take a forward spot, that could hurt you,
“But we’ve got what we’ve got, and we will deal with it on Friday night, it’s going to be a tough ask, but we will learn more about her Friday night.
“I’ll just leave it with Deni, but sometimes Steno can over-race a bit if she gets in front and if that happens to occur on Friday night, I’m not saying we can’t win it, but it’s going to be tough, hopefully we get the barrier draws when the bigger races come around in November.”
Team Bond purchased a half share in Aardiebytheseaside NZ at the start of the year, with Canadian based owner Mike Tanev retaining a half share as well and since making her way to WA, has gone seven from seven, with four-year-old doing exactly what Bond had hoped she would do.
“They don’t always do that unfortunately, things don’t always turn out, but probably what she’s done, you’d probably say she’s probably exceeded a little but we knew we had a quality horse,
“I was probably more concerned with the size of her and her getting around Gloucester Park, but those fears have been allayed and I’m looking forward to the next month of racing with her, with the mares’ classics coming up in November.”
At the time of print, Aardiebytheseaside NZ is currently at $2.90 on the TABtouch fixed odds market, with race favourite, Steno $1.45.
The Schrader F&M FFA (Gr3) jumps at 6.33pm WST (race 4), kicking off the dual feature night, with the fifth event, the 3YO Western Gateway hot on their heels in race 5 at 7.02pm, with the Bond trained Christopher Dance the $1.80 favourite, starting from barrier 6 just second up here in Western Australia.
