In Brief
- Black Centurian to line up in his fifth North Eastern Pacing Cup.
- The trainer happy with St Marys Cup run.
- Beach environment beneficial to pacers longevity.
Jr Mint gelding Black Centurian will be chasing his second Good Sports North Eastern Pacing Cup at the Scottsdale Recreation Ground this afternoon.
Black Centurian has contested the $12,000 feature for the past four seasons finishing runner up in his first three tries to Major Callum (2016), Fortino (2017) and Full Speed Ahead (2018).
His biggest losing margin was a neck, ironically the same distance he won by in last year’s cup.
Black Centurian contested the Listed Tassie Golden Apple two starts ago where his trainer Steven Davis was pleased with the run when seventh.
“With a bit more luck in the Golden Apple Final he may have run a place,” said Davis.
The gelding then went to St Marys on New Year’s Day where he attempted to claim his third win in the Cup on the grass track when finishing second to Koolaz Elvis, with 28.5 metres between them at the finish.
“It was a good run, he was probably a victim of starting too well early and settling in a good position,” said the trainer.
“The horse in the death seat didn’t do us any favours by carting us back, at the thousand we were about four horses back, but it was too far from home for Gareth to take off,” added the Spreyton based trainer.
Tonight, Black Centurian faces the back mark of 20 metres in the 2692 metre event, the handicap shouldn’t be too much of an issue as he won last year’s race off a 30-metre handicap, plus he has terrific standing start manners.
“The more pace on the better, he lacks a bit of zip, but he will stay all day,” said Davis who is pleased with the pacers work this preparation.
“He is ten-years-old now but believe it or not he is working better than he ever has,” he said.
Davis isn’t afraid to take many of his team of standardbreds and thoroughbreds to Moorland beach near the Devonport Airport, with the beach environment no doubt beneficial to his horses and himself.
“There is always something different out there, you see burnt-out cars some days, chased by dogs on others, last week we had some dolphins swimming about 10-metres from us,” said Davis.
“It turns their head around, it helps the trainer and family too,” laughed the trainer.
Black Centurian opened as a $7.50 chance for tonight’s race with the Golden Apple Final runner up Ideal World the early favourite at $2.20 over St Marys Cup winner Koolaz Elvis at $4.60.
The Good Sports North Eastern Pacing Cup is scheduled to start at 19:39 and is race six on a seven-event card that starts at 17:09.
Race four will be televised on Sky Racing 1 with the remainder on Sky Racing 2.
All races will be shown on TasracingTV’s Live Stream in conjunction with the Launceston thoroughbred program.