Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Outstanding driver Deni Roberts is optimistic that Minstrel, the oldest runner in the $1.25 million Nullarbor slot race at Gloucester Park on Friday night, possesses the speed, strength and stamina to win the big race and erase the disappointment of finishing second to Catch A Wave in this event 12 months ago.
“He is in tip-top shape and has the draw advantage on our main rivals,” she said after the eight-year-old drew the No. 4 barrier in the rich feature event over 2536m.
“Last year Minstrel started from barrier nine and was three wide for quite some time in the first lap and ended up in the breeze after being made to work to get there.”
Minstrel forged to the front 350m from home but was unable to hold out Catch A Wave, who took off three wide from seventh with 900m to travel and took the lead in the final 60m before beating Minstrel by a length.
“I didn’t think Minstrel was going to win because after getting to the front I had a look where Catch A Wave was, and I knew I had opened up my bloke, and Catch A Wave was way too close to me,” said Roberts. “He’d had a perfect run and found me out late.
“If we can find the front on Friday night, we should have a bit more up our sleeve. As long as we can hold all the others on our outside, I think Minstrel should find the fence ahead of the horses drawn the three inside barriers. And then Minstrel is likely to take the brunt of the good horses (Mister Smartee, Catch A Wave and Swayzee).”
Minstrel, prepared by champion trainers Greg and Skye Bond, will be making his first appearance at Gloucester Park since he won the WA Pacing Cup last November when he began from barrier two and raced in the breeze outside Pinny Tiger until eventually getting to the front 600m from home and fighting on grimly to win by a half-length from Mister Smartee, who had enjoyed a perfect passage in the one-out, one-back position.
“In the Pacing Cup I thought that Mister Smartee was going to beat me,” said Roberts. “But I didn’t have to open up in that race in which Minstrel had a more controlled breeze and had a bit more left in the tank. I don’t expect Mister Smartee and Swayzee to leave us alone on Friday night.
“The 2536m won’t worry Minstrel. We wish the race would be over three thousand metres.” Minstrel has won over trips between 2503m and 2692m 13 times and has a record of 70 starts for 27 wins, 16 seconds, six thirds and $1,447,308.
“Minstrel has been a great horse and has taken us further than we thought he would,” said Roberts. “His Inters campaign (in New South Wales last December when he finished second to Don Hugo in the final) was exceptional, and we should have gained a lot of respect from that.
“Minstrel’s stablemates Gee Heza Sport (barrier five) and Justcallmemiki (barrier eight) are talented pacers and will be snipers. They have been working together and there isn’t much between them.”
While Roberts is bubbling with confidence that Minstrel will prove hard to beat, so too is Jason Grimson, the trainer and part-owner of the New South Wales-bred champion pacer Swayzee, who has amassed $2,150,893 in prizemoney from 30 wins and 15 placings from 66 starts.
Swayzee is a grand stayer who has won the 3200m New Zealand Cup at Addington in the past two years for Grimson and ace Sydney reinsman Cam Hart. He is the only runner on the back line in Friday night’s field of ten.
Grimson and Hart, who combined to win the inaugural Nullarbor with Betterzippit in 2023, are planning to make life extremely tough for Swayzee’s rivals, with Grimson saying: “I know from his trackwork this morning (Tuesday) that he is ready to roll. He will run a big race; so, look out.
“He is a superstar and is good enough to sit outside the leader, and win. As much as people probably think that I wouldn’t like barrier ten, I do like it.
“He is the only horse off the second line and he can get straight off (the pegs), and with the other big guns (Catch A Wave and Mister Smartee) drawn out wide (at barriers nine and seven, respectively), it wouldn’t surprise me if Swayzee got in front of them. He has enough time to get around them and bully them (the leaders).”
WA’s champion reinsman Gary Hall Jnr said he was planning to come out of the gate with Mister Smartee. “I’ll slide forward and probably sit in the breeze and wait until Swayzee comes and then take the one-one sit behind that horse.
“And, finally, we would like to come with the sucker punch and finish over the top,” he said. “His run last week (when he raced in the breeze and finished second to Catch A Wave over 2130m) was good. The way the race was run made it just too hard for Mister Smartee to win.”
Five-year-old Mister Smartee, a winner at 16 of his 21 starts, is prepared by Hall Of Fame trainer Gary Hall Snr, who has had three runners in the first two Nullarbor events, finishing third with Jumpingjackmac and sixth with Diego in 2023, and finishing fifth with Jumpingjackmac last year.
Kate Gath, who drove Catch A Wave to victory in last year’s Nullarbor, is expected to restrain the six-year-old when he begins from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line. Her husband Andy, who trains Catch A Wave, said that the gelding is a terrific sit-sprinter and driven that way would give him his best chance of winning again this week.
Sit-sprinting also looks the best plan for the Justin Prentice-trained Mighty Ronaldo, who will be driven by Will Rixon from the favourable No. 2 barrier. Mighty Ronaldo will become the only runner to contest the first three runnings of the Nullarbor. He finished last from barrier nine in 2023, and sixth from the No. 2 barrier last year.
Four-year-old Waverider is the youngest runner in Friday night’s race. He will start from barrier three and will be driven by Kyle Symington for trainer Ryan Bell, who said: “He’s top notch but he needs to be. However, we’re confident he is in better shape than (stablemate) Swingband was last year when he finished third in the big race.
Trainer-reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green was delighted when seven-year-old Otis drew the prized No. 1 barrier, saying: “He is getting better with every run, and he loves the fence. If he can get out late, he should be right in the mix.”
Egerton-Green trained and drove $71 outsider Typhoon Banner from the No. 1 barrier when he finished fifth behind Betterzippit in 2023.
Shannon Suvaljko, who will drive six-year-old Hoppys Way for Henley Brook trainer Mike Reed, said he had an open mind regarding tactics from the No. 6 barrier.
“Hoppys Way is very fast and if we wanted, he could cross to the front easily,” he said. “Hoppys Way led from barrier seven when a half-length second to Tricky Miki in the 2022 WA Derby, and he led from barrier eight when a very close third behind Star Casino in the Four-Year-Old Championship in November 2023.
“I’ll just play it by ear, but more than likely over the 2536m he will settle in the field, and then I’ll take it from there.”