Bubble bursts for James Matthew in the Slipper

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But all the honours of the rich classic went to up-and-coming starAussie Reactor, the least-experienced runner in the 2130m event.

Aussie Reactor's victory was a notable triumph for 27-year-oldtrainer-reinsman Mark Reed, whose previous success as a trainer ina metropolitan-class event was with Pazam on February 6, 2004.

Reed, one of the finest drivers in Australia, has trained only afew pacers in recent years, preferring to concentrate on hisdriving.

He took over the training of Aussie Reactor this year whenpart-owner Tony Giglietta decided to curtail his trainingactivities and to concentrate more on his panel beating business inOsborne Park.

The 47-year-old Giglietta, who races Aussie Reactor in partnershipwith Bret Tottman and Fred Turco, missed watching his biggestsuccess in harness racing.

He and his wife Jeanette were in Melbourne celebrating their 25thwedding anniversary.

Giglietta, Tottman (who works at the panel beating business) andTurco, a retired schoolteacher, paid $19,500 for Aussie Reactor atthe 2007 Gloucester Standardbred yearling sales.

Now, Aussie Reactor has had five starts for four wins and a 1msecond on debut for earnings of $101,191.

Aussie Reactor is one of the first crop of pacers by Americanstallion Camcracker to race.

Aussie Reactor was bred by Royalstar Pty Ltd, also the breeders ofthe sensational James Matthew.

His win gave Reed one of his biggest thrills in the sport.

His previous major training triumphs were with Another Party in the2001 Fremantle Cup and the $400,000 A. G. Hunter Cup at MooneeValley the following month.

There was an early sensation in Friday night's race when a falsestart was called after polemarker Nat Serling galloped in thescore-up, inconveniencing Jett Dee.

This caused the normally placid and composed James Matthew to fireup and this led to his defeat.

Reed bounced Aussie Reactor, favourably drawn at barrier two,straight to the front at the re-start, while Morgan Woodley gotJames Matthew away speedily from the No. 8 barrier.

James Matthew raced four wide for the first 350m before getting onterms with Aussie Reactor.

Woodley then steadied James Matthew before he urged him to thefront 620m after the start.

But the false start had the champion well and truly fired up andeven when Woodley was able to send him through the first quarter ofthe final mile in a moderate 31.2sec. the gelding was not relaxingas he pulled hard against his driver.

When James Matthew got to the front, it left stablemate SmoothCaesar in the breeze, with Reed content to race on the pacemaker'sback.

Chris Lewis dashed Murcielago forward, three wide, from sixth inthe moving line at the 550m to move within a neck of James Matthewat the 300m mark.

James Matthew survived that challenge before Reed got off the pegswith about 300m to travel and went three wide on the home turn.

Aussie Reactor finished boldly to take a narrow lead 25m from thepost.

But James Matthew fought back with grim determination and the twoyoungsters crossed the finishing line locked together.

The margin was a nose. James Matthew's bid to extend his winningsequence to 11 and set a WA record of unbeaten runs by atwo-year-old had failed by an official margin of exactly 1/100th ofa second.

James Matthew was brave in defeat. If he had held on to win heprobably would not have finished up the winner.

Almost certainly Reed would have lodged a protest for interferenceover the final stages when James Matthew ran out quite a deal andtook Aussie Reactor's ground.

Almost certainly, the stewards would have upheld the protest.

They reprimanded Woodley for allowing James Matthew to shift up thetrack in the run to the post.

Aussie Reactor and James Matthew each rated 2min. over the 2130m,well outside James Matthew's WA record of 1.58.7.

Once again, the hoodoo which has haunted short-priced favourites inthe Golden Slipper struck with devastating effect.

James Matthew, tote favourite at 10/1 on, became the eighth hotfavourite in the past eight years to have failed in the richclassic.

Aussie Reactor firmed from 9s to 7s with bookmakers and was wellsupported on the tote from $9 to $6.70.

Murcielago was 7m farther back in third place, with Nat Serlingfourth.

An ecstatic Reed declared that Aussie Reactor's win had given him atremendous boost.

"He's given me a big kick along," he said.

"I had set the horse to win this race a long time ago."