Queen Shenandoah can atone

Queen Shenandoah has been freshened up since her defeat when favourite last Friday week, and trainer Ross Olivieri is confident she has the ability to bounce back and prove hard to beat in the $30,000 Schrader final for mares at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

The five-year-old raced on five successive Friday nights before Olivieri rested her last Friday. He admitted he was “slightly disappointed” at her effort when she enjoyed the ideal one-out and one-back trail and finished fourth behind My Prayer two Fridays ago.

“She has worked well since her latest start,” said Olivieri. Queen Shenandoah will begin from the coveted No. 1 barrier and Chris Voak will be anxious to win the start from the likely favourite Mandy Joan, who will start from the No. 2 barrier.

Queen Shenandoah began from barrier one when Voak drove her to an all-the-way victory over Anime and Our Rhythm N Blues two starts ago. After a modest early pace, Queen Shenandoah dashed over the final three quarters in 28.7sec., 28.9sec. and 28.3sec.

Mandy Joan, trained and driven by Aiden de Campo, is sure to prove very hard to beat. After racing wide early and then enjoying the one-out, one-back trail, Mandy Joan wilted slightly in the final stages to finish eighth behind Patronus Star in the Binshaw Classic last Friday night.

That unplaced effort followed easy victories in events restricted to mares at her three previous outings.  She gave a sample of her class two starts ago when she led from barrier three and won by more than four lengths from Fake News and Just Rockon Bye.

Olivieri has a handy second-string runner in Friday night’s race in Just Makemine Diamonds, who will be driven by Mitch Miller from the outside of the back line. She has been unplaced at her two starts since resuming after a lengthy spell and is ready to show improvement. Another mare in Olivieri’s stable, Salacious Gossip, has been scratched. She has been sold to continue her career as a broodmare.

Busselton trainer Barry Howlett has three runners in Friday night’s event Millwood Gucci (barrier five), My Prayer (barrier seven) and Dancing With Mach (barrier No. 2 on the back line).

My Prayer, to be handled by Deni Roberts, is racing keenly. She sat behind the pacemaker Starlight Destiny and finished strongly to get up and beat her at a 1.56.2 rate over 2130m last Friday week. Millwood Gucci covered extra ground when she came from the rear to win in weaker company two starts ago, while Dancing With Mach should enjoy a comfortable passage from her back-line draw.

 

Ken Casellas