Big plans for Runkle Crunch
Ace trainer-reinsman Aiden de Campo announced ambitious plans for Runkle Crunch after driving the gelding to an effortless victory in the $31,000 Ray Duffy Memorial over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“He will now have a bit of a break before being prepared for the major feature events for four-year-olds in October and November, and then, maybe, the WA Pacing Cup,” said de Campo.
The major targets will include the $125,000 Four-Year-Old Classic on October 23 and the $200,000 Golden Nugget on November 6, and if Runkle Crunch performs satisfactorily in those events he will be set for the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on December 11.
Runkle Crunch, the $2.30 favourite, began smartly from barrier No. 5 on Friday night and sped to the front after 250m before setting a solid pace and winning by three and a half lengths from the $3.50 second fancy Im Lightning Banner, who trailed the leader throughout.
After fast final 400m sections of 27.6sec. and 27.1sec. Runkle Crunch rated a smart 1.54.6.
“He has so much upside and he has come back this preparation a different horse,” said de Campo. “It was nice tonight to see him show a bit off the gate, and he ran through the line easy, with the plugs in.”
Runkle Crunch, a winner at four of his eleven starts in New Zealand, has raced twelve times in WA for four wins and two seconds and boasts a career record of 23 starts for eight wins, three seconds and stakes of $232,653.
Under The Alta is a bargain
In the age of high-priced pacers dominating racing there are still a few horses proving to be bargain purchases, with the latest example being eight-year-old Under The Alta, who is racing with youthful enthusiasm for veteran trainer Bill Whyte.
Whyte snapped up Under The Alta for a mere $2000 just over three months ago, and the 72-year-old trainer races the old gelding in partnership with his sons George and Anthony and his brother Malcolm.
“We got him from Rob Flannery pretty cheap,” said Whyte. “He was advertised in February for four grand, and we were able to buy him for $2000.”
This has proved to be an excellent purchase, with Under The Alta having 13 starts for his new owners for three wins, four placings and stakes of $29,728.
Under The Alta’s latest victory was in the 2130m Trotsynd, Join The Fun Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night when he was a $3.90 chance who began smartly from the outside of the back line for reinsman Kyle Symington and sustained a strong burst to take the lead with 900m to travel before winning by two lengths from $6 chance Take a Hike, who finished strongly from eighth at the bell.
Under The Alta is a massive gelding by former star pacer Alta Christiano and is out of New Zealand-bred mare Jade Bromac, who raced 75 times for seven wins, 12 placings and $53,662. Under The Alta, who has been prepared by seven different trainers, has earned $151,627 from 16 wins and 36 placings from 144 starts.
In recent years Whyte has part-owned and trained Jamie Kim, giving the gelding 98 starts for seven wins, 18 placings and stakes of $69,482. He gave the seven-year-old to Kristian Hawkins to train in January, and the gelding was successful at Kellerberrin last month.
Under The Alta is a bit of a sook, who enjoys sharing a paddock with Tiffany Robyne, a younger half-sister to Jamie Kim who was retired as a racehorse in 2023 after racing four times for a best effort of a third placing at Narrogin.
“They are great mates and the mare travels to the race meetings as a companion and has a stall next to Under The Alta,” said Whyte, who confines the preparation of the gelding to jog work at Byford.
Whyte has held a licence to train pacers for about 40 years, and he has fond memories of winning with Willie Be at Bunbury and Cunderdin in 1991. Friday night’s win gave Whyte his first metro-class success.
He is a retired signwriter who is now involved in a family painting business. “I was a bit lonely earlier this year without a horse to train, so that’s why I bought Under The Alta,” he explained.
Symington completed a double when he drove The Final Offer ($5.50) to an easy win over his stablemate and $1.50 favourite Chugach, who set the pace in the 1730m Bridge Bar Pace.
The Final Offer enjoyed a perfect sit behind Chugach before bursting to the front 110m from the post and winning by a length and a half, rating 1.55.3 after final quarters of 28.3sec. and 27.9sec.
The Final Offer is trained by Greg and Skye Bond, who were successful earlier in the night when Deni Roberts drove the highly promising four-year-old Our Crunch Time to an impressive all-the-way first-up victory over Last Hard Copy in the 2130m Beau Rivage Pace.
Westbred Classic is the aim
Classy four-year-old mare Ruby Lovera bounced back to her best form with a smart victory at Gloucester Park on Friday night when Trent Wheeler took advantage of an inside run in the home straight to win the 1730m Christmas In July Pace.
“Her main aim is the $100,000 Westbred Classic (for four-year-old mares on September 4),” said trainer Justin Prentice. “We will get some racing into her and try to have her at her peak for that race.”
Prentice, who has spent two of the past three weeks away on holidays, paid tribute to Wheeler, saying: “Trent has come down (to the Boyanup stable) and helped Katie (Lally) with the fast work, and that has been a massive help.
“Ruby Lovera went terribly at her previous start before tonight (when ninth behind Copy Cat Queen) and then we found a few things with her, and they have been sorted out and if we were to see the best version of her tonight, we thought she could win if she got the right run.”
Ruby Lovera was a $7.70 chance from the No. 2 barrier, and she enjoyed a perfect trip behind the polemarker and $2.40 favourite Beetastic, who set a brisk pace before hanging out on the home turn and in the straight.
This enabled Ruby Lovera to dash through on the inside and get to the front 25m from the post before winning by a half-length from $10 chance Heavenly Gipsy, who was eighth and last at the bell before flashing home out eight wide to snatch second place, a nose ahead of her stablemate Beetastic. The final quarters were run in 28.5sec. and 28.7sec. and the winner rated 1.55.4.
The victory gave Wheeler a 100 per cent record with Ruby Lovera. His only previous drive behind Ruby Lovera was ten starts earlier when the mare defeated Wicked Lover at Gloucester Park in May last year.
Ruby Lovera, a mare by Sweet Lou, has earned $170,694 from seven wins and six placings from 21 starts. Her victories included the Diamond Classic for two-year-olds in August 2024 and the Diamond Classic for three-year-olds in May last year. She also finished second to Fakenit in the WA Oaks last October.
Boy Blue pleases Voak
“He is not a big horse, and he has a super abundance of speed,” said trainer-reinsman Chris Voak after driving the comparatively inexperienced four-year-old Boy Blue to a brilliant victory in the 2130m Book Into Steelo’s Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“And tonight he showed a lot more stamina than he had shown in the past. I planned to over-drive him and I wanted to be in the breeze because I wanted to teach him to settle.
“However, I was happy that he was able to get to the front (with 1200m to travel) even though I expected he would have been able to win from the breeze.”
Boy Blue, the $1.50 favourite, covered the final three 400m sections in 29.1sec., 28.5sec. and 29sec. and strolled to victory by almost three lengths from $101 outsider Beat The Bank, rating 1.55.6.
“Our Crunch Time is a boom horse who won tonight, rating 1.56.6, and we rated 1.55.6 after doing a lot of work early,” said an upbeat Voak. “Boy Blue pulled up big in condition tonight, so there is improvement there.
“He will have a maximum of three more runs before I tip him out for a fortnight and then get him ready for the feature events for four-year-olds.”
Boy Blue is by American sire Rock N Roll Heaven and is the fourth and last foal out of Bettors Delight mare Lulli Midfrew, a modest performer in New Zealand where she raced 24 times for six wins, two placings and $35,23 in stakes. The first three of Lulli Midfrew’s progeny were fillies, none of which who raced.
“A mate of ours, Rick Giometti found Boy Blue in a work-out trial in New Zealand as a two-year-old,” said Voak. “He was rough and raw and rated only 2.10 but you could see that the speed was there.
“Rick negotiated a deal to buy Boy Blue for $80,000, so I phoned Chris Butt, who was here in WA, to get his opinion whether he considered he was worth eighty grand. Chris said that he knew the horse and had helped his cousin Bob Butt to break him in and give him his first two preparations when he revealed he had great natural speed.
“Chris said that Boy Blue could be 18 months away from being a good horse, but he said that if I waited until then I would have to pay double that price. So, I agreed to buy the horse, with Rick having a share in him along with some of our stable’s clients.”
Boy Blue has now had 13 starts for Voak for six wins, three placings and earnings of $51,866.
Winner disappoints Prentice
Ace trainer Kim Prentice was left scratching his head after Soho The Real Deal, the hot $1.40 favourite in the 2130m Free Entry Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night, had set the pace and scrambled to an unconvincing victory.
Driven by Mitch Miller, Soho The Real Deal began from the No. 3 barrier and took the lead after 200m, and after a smart lead time of 36.2sec. he ran reasonably comfortable quarters of 30.6sec., 29.2sec., 29sec. and 29.9sec. before holding on grimly to beat $9 chance Major Miki Whitby by a half-neck, rating 1.57.
“He disappointed me,” said Prentice. “I thought that he was way better than that and I expected him to win a lot more convincingly. His heart rate was a bit high after working during the week.
“Maybe it is a training fault; we will just have to see. We have been hoping that he was going to be up to Golden Nugget standard but on tonight’s showing he will need to improve a hell of a lot.”
Soho The Real Deal was making his first Gloucester Park appearance after racing out wide and winning a 1140m Dash For Cash event at Bunbury’s Donaldson Park at his WA debut 13 nights earlier.
“He felt super in the first lap,” said Miller. “Maybe he wasn’t expecting to run another lap tonight following his Bunbury win in a one-lap dash. He couldn’t have been more impressive than he was at Bunbury.”
Soho The Real Deal is by former star millionaire pacer Soho Tribeca, who was trained and driven by Prentice for several of his 21 victories, including the 2016 Golden Nugget (beating Nathans Courage and Chicago Bull) and the 2018 WA Pacing Cup (beating Chicago Bull).
Soho The Real Deal’s dam Soho Gloria Jane (by Somebeachsomewhere) won once from 13 starts as a two and three-year-old in Victoria, while her elder half-brother Jilliby Kung Fu was an outstanding performer who raced 47 times for 19 wins, 15 placings and $579,088, with his major victory being the Chariots Of Fire at Menangle in February 2018.
Soho The Real Deal has won at five of his 16 starts in New South Wales and at two of his 16 Victorian appearances --- and after two wins from two starts in WA he has earned $94,691.
Ryan Warwick wasn’t confident after Loch Tay’s unimpressive pre-race preliminary and was relieved when the Mike Williams-trained mare settled down, set the pace and held on to win the $30,000 Harry Capararo Westbred Pace for four and five-year-old mares by a half-head from the $7 chance Delulu, who finished strongly from seventh at the bell.
“She gets into moods and tonight it probably was the worst she has ever warmed up,” said Warwick. “I just had to get her to the first corner in front, and when she gets there her mood dictates how she performs. She is only a tiny little thing, and you could say she is not much good. But she tries really hard and does a really good job.”
