Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Victorian-bred pacer Beat City will be attempting the rare feat of winning three times in the space of eight days when he contests the 1730m Broome Cup Winner Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night when he will be driven for the first time by Aiden De Campo.
De Campo replaces Maddison Brown, who drove Beat City for an excellent victory over Regal Cheval and Simply Shaz last Friday night, thus ending a losing sequence of 18.
The Michael Young-trained Beat City then returned to Gloucester Park on Tuesday evening when he gave a superb performance to win from the talented four-year-old Street Hawk, with Brown and Street Hawk’s driver Deni Roberts being engaged in a titanic last-lap struggle.
Beat City set the pace from barrier two and was joined after a lap by Street Hawk, who started from the outside of the back line and sustained a powerful burst to get to the breeze.
Street Hawk took a narrow lead with 500m to travel before Beat City fought back to regain a narrow advantage 250m later. The two pacers were then locked together over the final stages, with Beat City gaining the verdict in a close photo finish. The final 400m sections were run in 27.8sec. and 28.7sec. and Beat City rated a smart 1.56.9 over 2130m.
Brown, who has driven Beat City at his past five starts for two wins, a second, a third and a fourth placing, will drive American Arma, who is trained by her father Colin and will start from barrier five in the field of six, with Beaty City at barrier four.
Gary Hall Jnr, who had the choice of driving Beat City’s stablemate Watts Up Sunshine (barrier two) or the Justin Prentice-trained Mr Fantastic (barrier one) opted to handle Mr Fantastic.
“Mr Fantastic should lead and be hard to beat,” said Hall. “He is at his best in front, and the distance will suit. He likes to roll along.”
Several WA Pacing Cup contenders will contest the $31,000 Seniors Golden Jacket Free-For-All, with Hall giving punters a valuable lead by choosing to drive Prince Of Pleasure ahead of stablemate Jumpingjackmac.
Prince Of Pleasure, who will start from the coveted No. 1 barrier, has been racing consistently, with his eleven runs in his current campaign producing five wins and four placings. “He should lead and prove hard to beat,” said Hall.
Stuart McDonald has driven Prince Of Pleasure at his past three starts for two placings, including a strong-finishing second to Mighty Ronaldo in the 2536m August Cup last Friday night. He will handle the talented five-year-old Jumpingjackmac, who has enjoyed a beneficial winter spell since running home strongly to finish third behind Betterzippit and Spirit Of St Louis in the $1 million Nullarbor slot race on April 14.
Jumpingjackmac will start from barrier five. He is prepared by Gary Hall Snr, who is also the trainer of Prince Of Pleasure and Diego, winner of the WA Pacing Cup from Jumpingjackmac and Mighty Ronaldo last January. Diego will start out wide at barrier seven, with Maddison Brown in the sulky.
Leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond will be represented by Steel The Show (barrier two) and the evergreen nine-year-old Vampiro (barrier eight). Steel The Show is racing in fine form and should fight out the finish. There is a strong possibility that he will trail the likely pacemaker Prince Of Pleasure, with Deni Roberts relying on the six-year-old unwinding a powerful finishing burst.