Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Victorian-bred six-year-old Beat City ended a losing sequence of 18 when he won the 2536m Hoist Torque Australia Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night and he will return to Melbourne to continue his career after he contests a 2130m event at Gloucester Park on Tuesday evening.
“Win, lose or draw on Tuesday, Beat City will be going home to Victoria,” said trainer Michael Young. “I give him a good chance on Tuesday (when the gelding will start from barrier two in the sixth event).
“I don’t really want to see him go, but the owners want him home. He has done a good job for us.”
Beat City, a winner of eight races in Victoria, has won eleven races in Western Australia and has an excellent record of 19 wins and 31 placings from 88 starts for earnings of $256,263.
He was the $2 favourite from the No. 7 barrier in a field of eight on Friday night when he settled down in seventh position before Maddison Brown sent him forward and into the breeze outside the $4.80 chance Regal Cheval, who led from barrier three.
The lead time was a slow 74.1sec. and the opening quarters of the final mile were run at a dawdling pace of 33.2sec. and 32.2sec. which were the two slowest 400m sections recorded on the ten-event program.
Beat City eventually took the lead on the home turn and won by 2m from Regal Cheval, rating a slow 2.4.2.