Gloucester Park Photo by Pacepix
Were just four days away from one of WA’s biggest race nights for 2024, the Italian Fireworks Night – WA Pacing Cup where WA’s best will go against eastern raider Captain Ravishing who hopes to take the $450,000 purse back home to the east coast.
Racing WA conducted the live barrier draw this morning on TABradios Sports Daily.
Captain Ravishing made his debut WA a winning one on Friday night, overcoming the awkward draw in barrier five and although trainer Freddy Taiba never doubted his ability to handle Gloucester Park, he was very impressed with his first run ahead of this week’s WA Pacing Cup.
“first reaction was I thought it was super, not that I had any doubts that he would handle the track, winning the race was a bonus, just ticking all the boxes I think.
“Fantastic, he’s really come on, he really needed that run, he will improve.”
Drawn in barrier 11 in the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup, Captain Ravishing will follow Minstrel NZ out from the mobile
“We’re going to get a relatively good position,
“It might make things a bit tricky on Mister Smartee, if they keep him out or not, who knows,
“But if they keep him out, we’re right in it, but if they hand up to him, well it changes things.”
Aiden De Campo remains on board this week and was happy with the run first up and also expects to see improvement in the five-year-old this Friday night.
“He seems to handle the track really well and paced really good, perfect run first up and I think he will improve from the run a little bit,
“He seems to be hopefully on song for this Friday night.”
Also relieved with the barrier draw, De Campo made mention that Captain Ravishing seems to have found his position in the run without having to work for it describing it as the ‘perfect draw’ for him.
“I wouldn’t say confident, it’s a Pacing Cup, there’s a lot of good horses in it, and he won’t be able to walk around to the front and get an easy run, or even be able to pull out half way around the back straight,
“He’s going to need a little bit of luck on his side, and I think he’s a good enough horse to win the Pacing Cup, there’s no standout horse this year so it will be a really good race.”
Ashleigh Paikos
Image: Pacepix
