Steve and Lee Bartholomew of Worrlong will be hoping for another big day at Tara Raceway on Sunday with last week’s winners Arctic Bear, Mary Bridget and Rough Pearl.
Having only his third race start, the 37½ kilograms white and brindle Arctic Bear led all the way in the Williams Crane Hire Maiden/One Win Stake (400 metres) to defeat Maybe Wrong by 2½ lengths in a best of day 23.11 seconds.
And Mary Bridget made an impressive debut over 512 metres, leading all the way when defeating Nitro Shelby by four lengths in the Greg Martlew Autos Stake in a time of 30.02 seconds.
The keenly-contested three-dog Metal Worx Mixed Stake (600 m), which was run in driving rain, resulted in Rough Pearl finishing over the top of Runaway Lad for a half-head win. Uno Shelby was a further 1½ lengths back in 35.86 seconds.
Bred at Moorak by Robert Chuck and whelped in October 2019, littermates Mary Bridget and Arctic Bear are by US sire Flying Stanley out of five-race winner Galactic Cat. She’s a litter sister to Galactic Panther who won the 2018 Summer Classic at Tara Raceway for Chuck and Bartholomew.
Both Mary Bridget, named after Steve’s 89-year-old mother, and Arctic Bear are owned by the Bartholomews and trained by the pair. And both look well placed in the heats of Sunday’s Winter Classic (512 m) – for dogs and bitches whelped on or after July 1, 2019.
Rough Pearl, trained by Lee Bartholomew, drops in distance on Sunday to 512 metres and the son of Dyna Double One x West On Jorja will feature in an interesting Gambier Vets Mixed Stake which also includes Rough In Vegas, Craggy Island and Smokey River.
Meanwhile, Morphett Vale owner-trainer Damien Smith celebrated his 41st birthday last Sunday with a win by Piastri, named after young Australian racing driver Oscar Piastri.
By Orson Allen, Piastri is out of the widely-travelled Fundamental (Fernando Bale x Forty Two Below) who raced in five states for 14 wins and $41,000 in stakemoney.
Having his first race start, the brindle dog led all the way from box one in the Exchange Printers Maiden Stake (305 m) to defeat Galactic Anubis by a length in 17.87 seconds.
Bonus-wise, Smith has done well over the past month with maiden winners at Tara Raceway. Piastri was the second $1000 SA-Bred Bonus to come his way after Miss Sniper had been successful over 305 metres on July 4.