Young harness racing reinsman Stuart McDonald continues to drive with verve and skill and punters will look to him to give them a flying start by winning the opening event, the 2130m Peter Church Westbred Pace, with the impressive Ross OIivieri-trained four-year-old mare Sheer Rocknroll.
It is considerably more difficult to choose the winner of the final event, but punters should get a good run for their money by supporting the No. 1 runner, the Michael George-trained Zacharia in the final event, the Aldana Pace over 2130m.
Sheer Rocknroll, aiming to record her sixth win in a row and her ninth win from her past ten starts, will start from the prized No. 1 barrier and McDonald will be keen to give her the task of leading all the way. Sher started from barrier three and gave a powerful staying performance to finish strongly and win from the heavily-supported pacemaker Foxy Dame over 2536m last Friday night.
She excelled as a frontrunner, winning in fast time at her two previous outings, over 2130m. Another excellent performance on Friday night will certainly tempt owner Bob Fowler and Olivieri to set Sheer Rocknroll for the rich events for mares at Gloucester Park next month.
Zacharia has a losing sequence of 19, but he has sound prospects in the Aldana Pace in which he looks ideally suited from the No. 1 barrier. The New Zealand-bred six-year-old has finished at the rear at his past five starts when he was not suited from awkward draws.
After Zacharia started from the No. 4 barrier and was trapped three wide early, he was restrained to last in the field of nine last Friday night. He moved to seventh at the bell, following the three-wide run of outsider Ergo, and failed to flatter when eighth behind Driven last Friday night.
The opposition is not as strong this week and Morgan Woodley looks certain to make use of Zacharia’s gate speed and give the Courage Under Fire gelding the task of leading throughout.
Zacharia is not a noted frontrunner and he has set the pace at only six of his 61 starts in mobile events in Western Australia for two wins (over 1684m at Pinjarra in July 2014 and over 2130m at Kellerberrin in August 2015), one second, one third and two fourths.
Hardest for Zacharia to beat are likely to be Estilo (unplaced at his past 13 starts, but likely to gain an ideal run behind Zacharia), Jus Livinthedream (who has been unplaced at his past 18 starts) and Another Ayjay (who has a losing run of 13).
Ken Casellas