Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Experienced six-year-old Mea Culpa’s past five outings have been at Pinjarra for three wins and two placings, and the Nathan Turvey-trained gelding looks hard to beat on his return to city racing when he contests the $18,500 APG Industry Owned Not For Profit Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He will be handled by Kyle Symington, who has driven the pacer nine times for five wins, two seconds and two thirds.
He raced without cover early and then set the pace on his way to winning comfortably from Benji, rating 1.55.8 over 1684m at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon. He was an all-the-way Pinjarra winner over 2185m the previous Monday when he dashed home over the final quarters in 28.1sec. and 27.3sec.
“Mea Culpa has been in this grade before and he has handled it fine,” said Symington. “We’ve got the good draw (barrier No. 1) and he has good gate speed. Our intentions will be to lead, and then hold our advantage.”
Mea Culpa’s chief rivals are likely to be the Greg and Skye Bond-trained pair of Master Yossi (Dylan Egerton-Green; barrier four) and Jett Star (Deni Roberts; barrier seven).
Master Yossi has finished second at three of his past four starts and is due for a change of luck. Jett Star will be racing second-up after a five-month absence and is capable of a bold showing. He has won at 13 of his 25 starts.