The $50,000 Christmas Gift Pace (2130m) and the $50,000 Group 3 Christmas Belles Pace (2130m) headline an interesting night of pacing at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
And the race between WA Trotting Media Guild members Ernie Manning, Ken Casellas and Matt Young for this year’s leading tipster looks certain to go right down to the wire.
With the year and season rapidly, coming to a close, Young has a tipping percentage of 46.6 per cent, just 0.2 per cent better than Manning and Casellas.
The prestigious honour of being named as the Guild’s leading tipster will be decided over the last days of 2023.
Young has made Crowd Control his best bet.
“Crowd Control can open the account for punters on Friday night in the first,” Young said. “The three-year-old gelding has been racing at his zesty best recently and loses no marks with the addition of Gary Hall Jr. Should go very close to victory.”
Manning is keen on Machnificent in race three.
“Smart five-year-old Machnificent, a winner of 10 Gloucester Park races, has bounced back to peak form and barrier two should offset his class rise after a last-start victory,” Manning said. “The Kat Warwick-trained horse appeared to be on his mark when winning only once in a run of 18 starts. But he has shaped up for more feature event assignments with two wins at headquarters in his last three appearances. He was most impressive when overcoming gate six and running on strongly for success two weeks ago.”
Casellas has settled on a squaregaiter as his star bet.
“On an evening of what promises to be a feast of highly competitive pacing action I have looked to the Twinkly Tinsel Trot for my best bet – Evas Image,” Casellas said. “The five-year-old mare was most impressive at her first appearance for four months when she set the pace and strolled to victory on Tuesday of last week. She looks set to repeat the dose on Friday night.”
Longshot guru Pat Harding believes Carana can bounce back to winning form.
“Looks like lean pickings for punters at GP this Friday night – much like last week,” Harding said. “My best bet comes up in race four, the Christmas Gift Pace. I think the Greg and Skye Bond-trained Carana from barrier two can win this event. Ran a good second last week and is ready for another win.”
Ryan Havercroft, the racing co-ordinator at The West Australian, and Guild president Wayne Currall were impressed by Lavra Joe’s winning return to the racetrack last week.
“Lavra Joe resumed in devastating fashion last week, signalling a warning to his free-for-all rivals that the son of Roll With Joe will be a force this campaign,” Havercroft said. “Rating 1:52.9 when winning by 7.3m, he draws closer in a smaller field and should have some natural improvement to come.”
And Currall agrees.
“Lavra Joe was brilliant in his return to the track last week after being off the scene for more than eight months,” Currall said. “He would have derived plenty of benefit from that first-up run and looks a banker for the quaddie and all-ups. Great to see Kyle Harper doing the steering behind another great horse. Go you good thing.”
VALUE BETS
MATT: All Is Well was solid first-up and has a tricky draw to work with, but I think he will come on strongly and run well on Friday night.
ERNIE: Four-year-old Soho Santorini has won only one of his past, nine races, but possesses a lot of ability. The gelding revealed big potential with three wins from a run of four starts early in his career and he later notched another four victories. He recorded his fourth consecutive unplaced performance when finishing last a week ago, however the Kim Prentice-trained pacer is capable of sharp improvement.
KEN: Hoppys Way is at the peak of his powers, at the moment and he should fight out the finish of the Christmas Gift.
PAT: My double comes up in race nine with No. 3 Rupert Of Lincoln. Had a good win last start and I think driver Chris Voak can give us a nice Christmas present.
RYAN: Our Star Watch broke through at his 14th start for Callan Suvaljko and used to perform well for Bob Mellsop when drawing the pegs. Each-way again from the good barrier.
WAYNE: I’m playing a win multi to see if I can score some much-needed cash before the big day. I think Wonderful To Fly, Lavra Joe and Evas Image will post all-the-way victories. They’re all short but will be a sweet little return if they all salute.
Click Here to view all of the Media Guild tips for this week.
FOOTNOTE: On behalf of the members of the WA Trotting Media Guild, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.