Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Lightly-raced New Zealand-bred pacer Himself is destined for stardom, and he is showing that he is sure to prove a formidable opponent to pacers of the calibre of Lavra Joe, Jumpingjackmac, Mighty Ronaldo, Finvarra, Stamford, Ragazzo Mach, Mr Fantastic, Ezana and others in feature events for four-year-olds later this year.
Himself, prepared by champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond, and driven with confidence by Ryan Warwick, was the $1.30 favourite in the $30,000 Marathon Handicap, a Group 3 feature event over 3309 metres at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He notched his fourth win from five starts in WA when he began from the No. 2 barrier on the front mark and was not seriously challenged on his way to scoring a decisive one-length victory over the $4.20 second fancy Cooper.
“All I wanted to do was to make sure that Himself got away safely,” said Warwick, who did not urge Himself forward at the start. Instead, Himself stepped away smoothly and settled down in third place while Cooper dashed straight to the front.
Warwick seized the initiative by dashing Himself past Cooper and into the lead 300m after the start.
The race then developed into a single file affair until Chris Voak made the first move by sending $51 chance Major Mucha forward from fifth into the breeze with 1150m to travel.
Warwick increased the tempo approaching the bell and Himself sprinted over the final 400m sections in 28.2sec. and 28.1sec. to win impressively at a 2.5.6 rate.
Himself, a Sportswriter gelding, has earned $83,767 from seven wins and five placings from 16 starts.