ON THE PACE: A winning double at Bunbury’s harness meeting last Saturday has afforded ace Boyanup trainer/driver Kim Prentice some breathing space over rival trainer Andrew De Campo in the 2011/12 Premiership Standings for the Leading Club Trainer at Bunbury.
With this Saturday’s race meeting being Bunbury’s last for the season, Prentice seems to have produced the winners in good time to clinch the title, but De Campo does have the capacity to still remain a threat.
Three winners and one or two placegetters at the upcoming meet is all it could take for the strong De Campo stable to seize the title from Prentice.
Soho Monza’s victory in the opening race for Prentice on Saturday in the Total Telephone three-year-old pace, was the third Bunbury win in the space of a month for the pacer. He is now well placed to take out this season’s Bunbury Pacer Of The Year title.
Local horse Uppy Son and Wrongly Accused are the other contenders, but they will need to line-up and perform well at this Saturday’s meet to be any chance of gaining the honours in that category.
In contrast to Soho Monza’s easy win at the latest race meeting, Prentice had to pull out all the stops to get three-year-old filly Elishgood over the line in race two, as her more seasoned rivals closed strongly in the final stages, but she was able to fight on doggedly to prevail by a half head after leading for the most part of the race.
The De Campo stable was able to show that it was not done with yet, when just two races later it produced a winner with New Zealand import Still Chokin. Reinsman Matthew White drove a confident race on the gelding to secure an important victory for his employer by a narrow margin too, after working his way around the field to take up the lead mid-race.
Other winners from the eight event Bunbury program included Wron-gly Accused, Pure Velocity , Jasper Whitby , Missus Major and Dreamy Eyes who won the last.