Carrera Mach, a handy New Zealand-bred five-year-old in the stables of Ross Olivieri, will reappear after a 32-week absence when he starts from the outside of the back line in the 2536m Westral Plantation Shutters Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He showed that he is capable of a bold first-up showing when he worked in fine style in a 2116m standing-start trial at Pinjarra on Monday morning.
He was the smartest into stride from the outside barrier in a field of five before taking a sit behind Courageous Disco. Chris Voak then dashed Carrera Mach to the front 250m from home and the gelding dashed away to win by three lengths from Join The Que, rating 1.58.7 after final 400m sections of 28.5sec. and 28.1sec.
Carrera Mach is a solid stayer and is considerably younger than all his rivals apart from five-year-old Jilliby Jake. These two pacers will be competing against ten horses who have an average age of nine (which will increase to ten on January 1) and have had a combined total of 1616 starts, an average of 161 starts per horse.
There is certainly more upside to Carrera Mach than that of his opposition, and at attractive odds he should appeal to discerning punters.
An interesting fact in this event is that the Matt Scott-trained Always Arjay, who has been unplaced at his past 20 starts and has a losing sequence of 25, finished with a powerful burst to be a head second to the brilliant Handsandwheels in the RWWA Cup in February 2019.
Olivieri is hoping for a successful ending to the 11-event program by winning the final race, the 2130m Westral Trot, with one of his two runners, King Of the Roses or Mr Sundon. They are well-performed square gaiters raced by the Merv Butterworth syndicate and should fight out the finish with Princess Mila, Always A Dreamer and Dark Secret.