The son of Live Or Die and Del's Holme and his two juvenile stablemates, AK Forty Seven and Braeview Angus, were faced with a daunting task in the non-winners heat, which was merged with the free-for-all pace. This meant the youngsters tackled Xmas In New York (two wins) and Alexy (one win).
Xmas In New York waltzed away with the heat, running the 2200m in 2.51.1, but Gerald made up some good ground along the markers, coming from fifth to second in the length of the straight.
Trainer Bruce Negus said he timed the colt pacing the final 400m in 28.3sec, which was enough for him to press on to a $7000 2yr-old race at Winton on Saturday.
''He went quite good without going great,'' Negus said.
''He's a better stayer than a sprinter, so we would imagine he would follow speed OK. He's not a star but he's a quite a nice horse.''
Negus had three 2yr-olds line up against each other in a separate non-winners heat. The Lis Mara gelding Music took the honours in that heat, running 2.52.2. Negus is happy to give those three runners a bit more time than Gerald.
''The others will just keep going until they close the gap,'' he said.
Other to qualify were the trotters Contiki - trained by Nigel Chalmers - and the Martin Denton-prepared Final Effort, who eclipsed the qualifying time by 2.5sec when they trialled together. Jay Cee Mac just qualified in his sixth attempt at making the grade, hitting the qualifying time of 2.58.3 for a 2200m standing-start event right on the money for Weston trainer-driver Warwick Macdonald.
Aveross Rustler missed out on qualifying earlier on in the day when he veered out in sympathy following the leader Tachma, who failed to handle the northeast corner at Forbury Park every time she reached it. Aveross Rustler was two seconds under the required time and should have little difficulty qualifying next time.
Sappy's Brite Star is free to start again in an official race after trotting cleanly throughout the one win and faster trot. The Sundon filly was stood down from racing after galloping at the Forbury Park meeting last week, but she put on a faultless display in front of stipendiary steward Mark Davidson when running a close-up third in her heat.
