Ken Casellas | Race Replay
New Zealand-bred six-year-old Vinita Rose will be set for the $50,000 Lombardo event for mares on Friday of next week if she wins or is placed in the APG Perth Yearling Sale Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“I think she has a really good chance this week,” declared her trainer-reinsman Aldo Cortopassi. “She has good gate speed and will run the gate. You saw last week how fast she can come off the arm.”
Vinita Rose impressed last Friday night when she sped straight to the front from barrier five and set a brisk pace, covering the final three quarters in 28.6sec., 28.2sec. and 29.4sec. before finishing a fighting half-length second to powerful four-year-old gelding Spitfire, who rated 1.56 over the 2130m journey.
This week Vinita Rose is ideally drawn at barrier two, with Cortopassi hoping that her early speed will enable her to win the start.
“If she goes well again this week, we can look at the Lombardo the following week,” said Cortopassi. “It’s a preferential-draw race, and with a national rating of only 75 Vinita Rose should draw inside all the good mares.
“I have always rated Vinita Rose, but she has taken a bit of time for the penny to drop. I have had her for quite a while, and after she arrived from New Zealand, she won a race early (at Gloucester Park) and was placed twice at both Pinjarra and Bunbury at her first five starts in WA in August and September 2024.
“I then spelled her, but when I brought her back, I lost her when she got really sick with a bacterial infection. So, I put her in the paddock for four months, and since she’s been back, she has been a different horse.”
Cortopassi prepares three pacers at his Boyanup training establishment as well as enjoying his role as WA’s driving coach.
“I go to most of the country meetings to keep an eye on all the young drivers,” he said. “I have 19 kids on the books and have three new ones just signed on. We have some talented young drivers coming through, and exciting times are ahead.”
Vinita Rose will need to be at her best on Friday night when she clashes with several smart pacers, including Cee Dee Three (barrier one), Sugar Shake (three), Reset The Bar (five), as well as Maddy Rocks (nine), Dourado (inside of the back line) and other back-line runners Chasing Rex and Major Thinker.
Cee Dee Three, a lightly-raced seven-year-old to be driven by Kyle Harper for trainer Shane Tognolini, has good gate speed and he impressed at his first appearance for six months when he ran home strongly from last in the field of twelve at the bell to finish fourth behind Spitfire last Friday night.
Sugar Shake, a seven-year-old to be driven by Jocelyn Young for trainer Cameron Ross, has won at six of his 12 starts and has excellent prospects from the No. 3 barrier at his first outing for 15 months.
Sugar Shake enjoyed a good trip in the one-out and one-back position before finishing strongly to win a 2185m trial at Pinjarra three Wednesdays ago. “He trialled okay, but it was not against anything of his class,” said Young. “So, it is hard to get a gauge on that trial.”
Trainer-reinsman Gary Hall Jnr is looking for a strong performance from Reset The Bar, who had a tough run in the breeze when narrowly beaten by Kurios Boy last Friday night. “He needed the first-up run, and he should be improved by that effort,” said Hall. “He should be thereabouts again.”
Hall also has Chasing Rex (Stuart McDonald) engaged, and he said that the five-year-old was capable of a bold showing, particularly if the race was run at a fast tempo.
The New Zealand-bred Major Thinker, trained and driven by Lindsay Harper, will begin from barrier two on the back line at his first appearance since finishing fifth in a race at Bendigo in March 2024.
“He is a nice horse who has spent two years away from the track, so obviously he will need the run,” said Harper. “He ran a pretty good trial at Byford a couple of weeks ago when I didn’t knock him around and he did it within himself.”