Magnificent Storm the pride of the West hits 50 wins and still going strong

Resilient nine year old Magnificent Storm (American Ideal) continues to make records in his older years with a character stamping 50^th harness racing success in taking out the Vale Roselyn MacKinnon Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday evening.

Despite his veteran years, Magnificent Storm has shown he has lost none of that brilliant trademark early speed and it showed last night when from the outside of the front row he displayed electrifying speed to reach the front and from then on it was a case of shut the gate.

MAGNIFICENT STORM 14 AUG REPLAY

Driver Aiden De Campo was allowed to dictate his own pace in the lead and when he ran his first quarter in 31.5 seconds it was going to almost impossible for those behind to make any ground. And with his final quarters in 27.5 and 27.2 seconds he had a clear break on turning for home when De Campo set him going. Im Lightning Banner who had the run behind the leader tried to make up ground and he battled on gamely but was no match for the winner finishing second ahead of Bettors Pride.

Among his fifty wins, Magnificent Storm has won prestige races such as the Group 1 Four year old classic, York Cup (twice), Navy Cup (three times), James Brennan (twice), the Mount Eden Sprint (twice), Village Kid Sprint (three times)  and of course his memorable win in the Group 1 West Australian Pacing Cup, and the Governors Cup as well as numerous free for alls. His other major Group 1 success was last April in the Fremantle Cup.

The only time that those on the Eastern seaboard were able to see Magnificent Storm was when trainer Ray Williams took him in July 2023 for an unsuccessful stint at the Blacks A Fake carnival in Brisbane.

Following his success, De Campo gave all credit to the horse and training team.

I can’t take much credit for that. Just his gait stride, I asked him for one stride and he crossed all those real fast horses on the inside of him.

On his ear he was out by himself just loafing around a little bit in the first lap. I thought I had better sharpen him up at the 1000 mark and sharpen up he did.

You have to give a lot of credit to the team behind the horse Keeping him going to this age. He hasn’t been overraced. They’ve picked and chosen when to race him and really looked after the horse. That’s probably the key to him. And he’s not losing a trick at the present moment which is pretty good.

He tends to really want to be a racehorse he tends to get better as the preps go on. At his age you sometimes think they’d be switching off a little bit but as he’s got older he’s applied his trade better and better which is good.

Whatever Ray Williams decides on with Magnificent Storm he is bound to have a loyal group of fans cheering him on. And on the strength of his recent form it wouldn’t be beyond him to notch yet another feature to his wonderful racing career.

 

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink