Pike still the pick in Placid Ark race
Perth champion jockey can star at The Pinnacles Day 1 even on outsider Mai Aloha
Perth’s 14-time champion jockey William Pike will as usual be a well-sought commodity as The Pinnacles kicks off at Ascot on Nov 16.
But for that Day 1 of Western Australia’s premier racing carnival, Pike is surprisingly sitting on outsiders in the two main 3YO events.
The “Wizard of the West” rides Mai Aloha in the A$500,000 (S$453,000) Listed Placid Ark Stakes (1,200m) and Storyville in the A$300,000 Group 3 WA Champion Fillies Stakes (1,600m), both for Grant and Alana Williams.
He actually combines with the same team in the other two “black type” races – both A$200,000 Group 3 events – on that day, Western Empire in the Colonel Reeves Stakes (1,100m) and Yonga Lass in the R.J. Peters Stakes (1,500m).
Mai Aloha is a 12-1 pop to take the Placid Ark while Storyville is better fancied at 11-2, in spite of a last-start eighth place in the Fillies prelude, the Listed Burgess Queen Stakes (1,400m) on Nov 5.
But the value bet is Mai Aloha, even if her last-start win in a Class 1 race (1,200m) at Ascot on Nov 5 is hard to gauge against fancies Wind And The Lion and Repossession.
Despite the Long Leaf filly’s softer path to the Placid Ark, the Pike factor and the trip are plus points.
Top picks like Wind And The Lion, Repossession and Madhi Girl have all plotted the orthodox path of the Placid Ark Prelude on Nov 2, only racing up to 1,000m while Mai Aloha has tasted 1,200m.
She has, however, drawn sticky in 19, but Pike is good as anyone in getting back, shuffling through the field and hitting the line hard.
Likewise, those who ran 1,400m in the Listed Fairetha Stakes on Nov 9, like Horcrux (sixth) and Ripper Farooq (eighth), the drop back to 1,200m on the quick back-up is often a winning move.
Only three of the last 10 winners of the Placid Ark have risen in distance of their last start.
The Placid Ark (run at 5.32pm Singapore time) is such a brutally run race that a solid dose of fitness base must be under the belt to really show their best on the day.
Horcrux folded late in the Fairetha, but the Simon Miller-trained and Jordan Turner-ridden gelding will lead, and if he gets them off the bit early, he will be hard to catch.
The favourites do have some chinks in the armour, though.
Repossession won the Prelude after he led, but did miss the start a touch. He is drawn ideally in one on Saturday, but if he is slow out again, he may be buried back the fence, which will diminish his chances of going back-to-back.
But in the Fillies (4.15pm), Pike has his work cut out on Storyville, eighth in the Burgess Queen.
Flower Of Gold is a deserving 5-2 favourite for the Miller-Turner duo. She overcame traffic in the Burgess Queen before storming home for a close third to London’s Image.
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