Lightly-raced six-year-old Tas Man Bromac has been placed twice in group feature events in New Zealand and he has the class to make a successful Australian harness racing debut when he starts from the No. 4 barrier in the first heat of the International Animal Health Products Kersley Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The gelding by American Ideal has been in the care of leading trainer Skye Bond since arriving in Western Australia a fortnight ago and he will be driven by Ryan Warwick.
Tas Man Bromac has raced 31 times for ten wins and 14 placings for earnings of $119,722. As a three-year-old he finished a nose second to Im Full of Excuses in the Group 2 $45,000 Southern Supremacy Stakes, a 2700m mobile event at Invercargill, and as a four-year-old he finished a half-length second to My Field Marshal in the Group 1 Taylor Mile over 1700m at Alexandra Park.
At his latest appearance, a stand over 2400m at Winton on September 7 he was the lone backmarker off 35 metres and he revealed a sparkling turn of speed when he dashed forward from eighth at the 1200m to take up the running 900m from home. He went on to win by a neck from the in-form Crime Scene, with a final 400m section in 28.1sec.
At his previous outing, he started from the outside barrier in a field of eight in a 2200m mobile at Gore. He was restrained and settled in seventh position, eight lengths from the early leader. He moved to the breeze 800m from home, took the lead 300m out and was beaten into second place by a neck by Crime Scene, who finished fast along the inside.
Tas Man Bromac’s chief rival this week is sure to be the polemarker Extreme Prince, who scored an overdue success when he finished strongly from sixth at the bell to beat Tajie Baby by four lengths at a 1.58.3 rate over 2130m last Friday week.
“He broke through for a win, but I still thought that he was holding back on me,” said reinsman Gary Hall Jnr. “So, we have put a hood on him for Friday to see if we can get a bit more out of him. The draw here is a big advantage.”
Experienced pacers with long losing sequences have good prospects of fighting out the finish of the opening event, the $22,000 TABtouch Pace over 2130m.
Polemarker El Machine will have many admirers and is likely to vie for favouritism, despite a losing sequence of 43, stretching back to February 2016. The nine-year-old, trained by Debbie Padberg and driven by Luke Edwards, has dropped considerably in class in recent months. He should be in a commanding position throughout.
Your Excused, trained at Waroona by Bob Mellsop, will be driven by Jocelyn Young from out wide at barrier seven. The seven-year-old has a losing sequence of 23, but rarely runs a poor race. He has been placed at each of his past four starts.
Ken Casellas