Family cup glory

By Peter Sweeney
TWO Gary Halls are hoping for the same result with a different ending – if such makes sense – in Melbourne on Saturday night.
The West Australian father and son team with the same names had plenty to celebrate – but nobody to do it with – last Saturday night. However, should their star horse Imthemightyquinn do to his rivals in the Victoria Cup what he did to those in the Cranbourne Cup, there will be a party. A big, long one.
And there is no reason why the six-year-old bay gelding with an American dad and a New Zealand mum cannot give a repeat performance.
Simply, Imthemightyquinn was awesome at the crowd-packed and thunderstorm looming Cranbourne circuit – against a field of stars. Pre-race, trainer Gary Hall senior wasn’t even entertaining this week’s Victoria Cup at Melton. And that’s a big statement, as when it comes to confidence in his horses, Hall Snr, whose headquarters are near the Perth Domestic Airport, lacks nothing.
“Let’s just get over tonight,” he said shortly before 9pm. An hour later, when he wished his reinsman son Gary the best as he whisked the horse off from the stables, a friend offered Hall Snr a pre-race drink.
“He doesn’t need that; what he needs is three valiums,” another mate said. Then a nervous Hall the trainer watched a composed Hall the driver take the lead soon after the start of the 2555 metre Group 1 Cranbourne Pacing Cup, sponsored by Decron, suppliers of horse care products. Soon after, he (Hall jnr), handed over the advantage.
From then – until he found the sprint lane with about 200m to go – Imthemightyquinn was beautifully placed third, behind leader Melpark Major and Smoken Up, who sat outside the frontrunner. Pre-race, well-respected trotting identity Rob Auber said in on-course interviews that when it came to sheer speed, Imthemightyquinn had a lot of Popular Alm about him. Many regarded ‘Poppy’, the late champion, as having the fastest turn of speed of any horse.
On Saturday night, as he slipped away in the straight to win by five metres and set a track record mile rate of 1:57.4 for the distance, Imthemightyquinn did have a lot of the Popular Alm look about him. And don’t worry who fronts up next Saturday in the Victoria Cup, the West Australian will be very, very hard to beat.
“As important as the barrier draw is, he is probably the one horse who can come from well back and win,” Hall jnr said on Sunday morning before boarding a flight to Perth.
Hall had arrived in Melbourne at sunrise on Saturday after driving at the Gloucester Park meeting on Friday night, slept between 8am and 3pm at a Hampton house where his sister Casey lives, and drove a car to Cranbourne to drive Imthemightyquinn to victory.
“I might catch the early morning flight this Saturday (from Perth) and get some sleep before it,” Hall Jnr said. But this time he will have company, as all, or most, of the seven WA owners of Imthemightyquinn will come over. None were at Cranbourne on Saturday night.
Post-race, Hall snr beamed with excitement – but mainly, satisfaction.
He rates Imthemightyquinn highly – and was glad his pacer proved such to the public. Imthemightyquinn finished third – after being last when they turned for home – in the marathon Hunter Cup of last year – the last raced at Moonee Valley.
Hall was still smarting at Imthemightyquinn missing an invitation to contest the Miracle Mile of a fortnight ago – which was won by Smoken Up. Instead of being at Menangle in NSW, the Halls and Imthemightyquinn were 200km south of Perth – winning the Bunbury Cup.
“I’m just so happy for the people that they have seen this horses at his best,” Hall Snr said.
Somebody else “tickled pink” at the cup presentation was Merv Butterworth, the managing-director of Decron. Mr Butterworth was born in the west and races horses there.
“That was a fantastic performance by Gary Hall Snr, Gary Hall Jnr and Imthemightyquinn,” Mr Butterworth said in a parochial WA-like manner. However, even the most one-eyed eastern Stater, as West Australians refer to people who live on “the other side”, would admit it was special.
And though it was worthy of a “night on the town”, the Halls were happy at the subdued mood. “The owners will be over this week for the Victoria Cup and hopefully there’s something to celebrate,” Hall Jnr said.
“Even if we don’t win, we will celebrate the Cranbourne Cup. I watched the last lap of the race on the internet and he was good.
“He was going so good for us a while ago he was peaking too early for the big races, so we tipped him out. But then he did too good in the paddock, and when he came back he was too fired up and took a while to settle and show his best.
“He’s a pretty popular horse … he has got his own page on Facebook, you know.”