Veteran pacer Terror In Texas has emerged from the wilderness and is again making his mark as a quality performer.
The nine-year-old has thrived on a special preparation of galloping in the sand and swimming at South Beach, and his three runs for Fremantle trainer Keith Frost after resuming from a 23-month absence have resulted in two seconds followed by a tough victory in the 2130m AGWA Building Maintenance Services Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Terror In Texas, driven by Chris Lewis, was the $2.20 favourite from the No. 3 barrier, and he revealed great strength to work hard in the breeze outside the $3 second fancy Sugar Shake before fighting on with great determination to snatch a head victory from Sugar Shake, rating 1.57.3 after final quarters of 28.2sec. and 29.1sec.
His breeder and owner Dene Bickers said that Terror In Texas had enormous potential, saying: “He was troubled by bone chips in his legs and other niggling issues have prevented him from realising his full potential. When he suffered from bone chips it put pressure on other parts of his body. “
Terror In Texas is by New Zealand sire Terror To Love and is the eleventh foal out of the Fake Left mare Texan Cowgirl, a modest performer in WA who raced 31 times for six wins (four in Kalgoorlie and two in Geraldton), ten placings and $20,645 in stakes.
Texan Cowgirl’s second foal (bred by Ross Torre) was Aussie Reactor, who was retired with earnings of $616,425 from 44 wins and 47 placings from 182 starts. His most memorable victory was when he finished powerfully to snatch a dramatic final-stride win from the hot favourite James Matthew in the group 1 Golden Slipper in July 2008.
Aussie Reactor won 20 times in WA before racing in America where he won another 24 times.
Bickers purchased Texan Cowgirl at Torre’s dispersal sale more than 15 years ago, and the first foal he bred from that mare was Aussie Delight, who won the group 2 Binshaw Pace in December 2017 and was retired with earnings of $124,452 from 12 wins and ten placings from 54 starts.
Terror In Texas is the fifth foal bred by Bickers out of Texan Cowgirl, and the old gelding has now had 29 starts for nine wins, 12 placings and $63,031.
As a three-year-old, trained and driven by Gary Butler, Terror In Texas won four times, and in the following year he finished tenth behind Minstrel in the group 1 Golden Nugget in February 2021. He then was badly affected by a damaged nearside hind leg and was off the scene for 23 months before resuming racing in January 2023.
He had five starts at Pinjarra early in 2023, resulting in one second and two third placings, and then was not sighted for the next eleven months as he recovered from the surgery to remove the bone chips in his legs. But after seven starts for a win at Gloucester Park and three placings in that campaign he did not race for another 23 months.
Terror In Texas then reappeared in a race at Pinjarra last month when he finished a well-beaten second before improving with a close second to Louie Lebeau at Gloucester Park the following week. He derived good benefit from those runs and was primed to run a big race on Friday night.
Bickers said that six months ago he had asked the 72-year-old Frost to take over the preparation of Terror In Texas to give the pacer a diet of swimming and galloping on the sand at South Beach.
“He is thriving on this program and is bright eyed and happy,” said Bickers.
Terror In Texas is the only pacer being trained by Frost, whose previous training success was with Road Closure, who won a $9360 event at Gloucester Park on June 3 last year.
