Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Young and inexperienced trotter Our Maestoto will make his first appearance at Gloucester Park on Friday night, and Busselton trainer Barry Howlett is confident that the four-year-old will maintain his unbeaten record.
Howlett, who celebrated a significant milestone last Friday night when Brulee scored a narrow victory in a 1730m event for three-year-old fillies to give him his 500TH training success, said that Our Maestoto would be hard to beat when he starts from the No. 1 barrier in the $20,250 Cowden For Exceptional Service Trot.
Our Maestoto’s clash with the highly-regarded trotter Bromwich (barrier three) should be a highlight on the ten-event program. Bromwich, a former Victorian performer, now trained by Gary Hall Snr, has been most impressive in winning easily at his first two starts in Western Australia.
“Our Maestoto is first-up for a while (110 days since his latest outing), but he will go pretty good,” said Howlett. “Our guy is inexperienced compared to the others in the race, but he is a very good horse who is going places.”
Howlett purchased Our Maestoto as a weanling in New Zealand, mainly because he is closely related to brilliant trotter Sunnys Little Whiz, who had 29 starts in WA for Howlett for 16 wins, seven seconds and three thirds. Her major success was in the Group 1 Trotters Cup at Gloucester Park in December 2016.
“I reckon Our Maestoto goes as good as Sunnys Little Whiz ever went,” said Howlett. “He can run, and he beats all our two-year-old pacers at home.
“I know that Bromwich is also very good, and I’ve heard Junior (Gary Hall Jnr) saying on an interview that he is as good as any trotter they have ever had, and that includes Trick Ric.”
Bromwich is an experienced five-year-old who has had 47 starts for eight wins, ten seconds and three thirds. He has won very easily at his first two WA starts — in stands at Pinjarra and Gloucester Park, and he appears certain to develop into a wonderful star in WA.
Our Maestoto, driven by Chris Lewis, has had three starts — all at Pinjarra in consecutive weeks in February this year — for effortless victories, with winning margins of 17.6m, 25.2m and 20.7m.
Howlett and Lewis also have bright prospects in the opening event on Friday night, the 2130m Cowden The Insurance Brokers Pace in which seven-year-old mare My Prayer will be fancied to win and end a 20-month drought and a losing sequence of 27.
My Prayer, a winner at eight of her 78 starts, will start from the prized No. 1 barrier. “She is working alright at home and should go pretty close,” said Howlett. “She hasn’t won since she started from the No. 1 barrier and set the pace (and beat Weewah by a half-head at Gloucester Park on October 8, 2021).”
My Prayer’s chief rival is likely to be the experienced six-year-old Craig Hynam-trained Medieval Man, who will start from barrier three with Lindsay Harper in the sulky.
Medieval Man ended a sequence of twelve unplaced runs last Friday night when he finished solidly from fourth at the bell to be second to High Price.