Cup star Pengala set for classics

PROMISING two- year- old Gee Gee Pengala will head to the feature juvenile classics during the Tasmanian Summer Racing Carnival after she upstaged interstate invader Call Me Royal in a 2YO maiden over 1100m at Elwick yesterday.

Gee Gee Pengala ($5) delivered a bold front-running exhibition to outgun the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Botttrained filly Call Me Royal ($1.50) which flashed home from well back, with first-starter Highveld a distant third.

The winner is trained at Spreyton by Dean and Trent Wells of Team Wells, who have always regarded the gelding as one of their best juveniles.

“This horse did a great job at his only other start when second in Launceston and he ran all about in the straight that night, but he learnt a lot from the experience,” said Leon Wells, who looks after the Brighton training stables of the family’s statewide business.

“He has always shown a lot of promise and he is getting better with each run so he will definitely be aimed at races such as the Elwick Stakes and Gold Sovereign, the state’s best two-year-old events.”

Call Me Royal was heavily backed, but with Daniel Ganderton aboard she settled well back and never travelled well until she got into the home straight.

She reeled off a brilliant last 200m, but was too far back to make an impact. DEVONPORT Cup-winning trainer Aiden Nunn produced a promising filly named Ilfracombe which scored an impressive all-the-way win in a maiden over 1100m.

Ilfracombe was sensationally backed in from $41 to start at $9 and won like an odds-on chance.

The filly finished fourth on debut in Devonport, but Nunn was confident she had improved and said there were excuses for her debut effort.

“She turned her head sideways in the barrier on debut and she reacted poorly to the synthetic surface at Devonport, but back on the grass here in Hobart and with no weight on her back and a decent barrier I thought she could win,” Nunn said.

“I’m not sure where we go with her from here but we might aim her at one of the better quality three-year-old races and see how she goes.”

Nunn said his Devonport Cup winner Brilliant Jet had pulled up well and could have his next start in the $250,000 Hobart Cup on February 11.