Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Consistent WA-bred six-year-old Middlepage notched his fourth win from 13 starts this year when he flew home from a seemingly impossible fifth position 150 metres from the post to get up and snatch a dramatic victory in a four-way photo finish in the 2536m Allwood Stud Supporting WA Breeding Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He was a $11.50 chance from barrier seven and trainer-reinsman Lindsay Harper got him away smartly to settle down in the favourable one-out, one-back position before Classic Choice ($9.50) surged forward in the first circuit to move to the breeze, thus relegating Middlepage to sixth place, one-out and two-back.
Harper patiently bided his time before Middlepage unleashed his dazzling late burst of speed to get up in the final stride to beat Ezana ($4.20) in the final stride. Ezana, who had enjoyed the one-out, one-back sit for much of the race, got to the front in the home straight.
Half a head away in third place was a gallant Classic Choice, who finished a head in front of the pacemaker Alta Rhett ($3.20). Mea Culpa, the $2.35 favourite, finished fifth.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Harper, with Middlepage locking wheels with Mea Culpa soon after the start. “Mea Culpa tried to get off the pegs on the first corner, but I was able to keep him locked up,” said Harper.
“I read the race that Classic Choice would be outside the leader Alta Rhett and applying pressure. That allowed me to keep Mea Culpa in the hole (on the pegs).
“Turning for home I thought I was still a chance. Ezana was in my way, and he didn’t want to go, and I thought that if I went on the corner, he would put me wide, making it harder for us. I sweated on him. He went very late, and it was inside the 200m before he actually went forward. Middlepage did a good job to make up the ground.”
Middlepage, purchased for $20,000 at the 2018 APG Perth yearling sale, has raced 70 times for 14 wins, 19 placings and $122,184.