Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Brilliant driver Deni Roberts has elected to handle Minstrel in preference to stablemate Himself in the $31,000 Westerntrilogy.com.au Free-For-All over 2536m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“Minstrel has drawn the pole which is good,” said Roberts. “I’ll be trying to lead and to get him into form.”
The New Zealand-bred Minstrel, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, will be making his second appearance after a beneficial winter spell. The six-year-old, a winner at 17 of his 47 starts, is one of several outstanding Bond-trained pacers being prepared for the $450,000 TABtouch WA Pacing Cup to be run over 2536m on November 10.
Minstrel resumed in a 2536m event last Friday week when he raced wide before moving to the breeze 550m after the start, and then obtained the one-out, one-back trail when Himself dashed forward from last to race without cover 1600m from home.
Himself fought on gamely to finish third behind another stablemate in Steel The Show, while Minstrel wilted to finish seventh.
Himself will begin from the No. 2 barrier with Dylan Egerton-Green in the sulky, and he should gain a perfect sit behind Minstrel.
The third runner from the Bond stable in this race is ten-year-old Galactic Star, who will be handled by Mitch Miller and will start from barrier five. Galactic Star trailed the pacemaker Prince Of Pleasure and finished second to that pacer over 2130m three Fridays ago. He was an all-the-way winner over 2536m four starts earlier.
Serpentine trainer Gary Hall Snr has two runners in the race — Diego (Gary Hall Jnr, barrier six) and Jumpingjackmac (Stuart McDonald, barrier seven), while Emily Suvaljko will resume as the driver of Justin Prentice’s classy five-year-old Mighty Ronaldo (barrier three). Diego and Jumpingjackmac will find it difficult to overcome their wide barriers.