Outstanding young reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green has given punters a valuable lead by choosing to drive Pocket The Cash in preference to another smart four-year-old See Ya Write in the opening event, The West Australian Pace, at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
He made the choice after the Stephen Reed-trained Pocket The Cash drew the No. 1 barrier in the 2130m event and See Ya Write, prepared by Greg and Skye Bond, drew out wide at barrier eight. Colin Brown has been engaged to drive See Ya Write at the gelding’s fourth appearance in Western Australia, after four wins from 11 starts in New Zealand.
Minstrel, another New Zealand-bred four-year-old from the powerful Bond stable, will start from the outside in the field of nine and will be handled by the stable’s No. 1 driver Ryan Warwick. Minstrel, a winner at six of his 14 starts, was an easy winner in a 2150m trial at Byford last Sunday week when he dashed over the final 400m in 28.7sec. to beat Longreach Bay by eight metres.
Pocket The Cash is racing keenly and is a good frontrunner who will need to be at his top to beat the Bond runners as well as smart performers Master Publisher, Boom Time, Jesse Allwood and Pradason.
Pocket The Cash started out wide at barrier eight in a 2536m event last Friday night when he came from last in the middle stages with a three-wide burst to move to second in the back straight in the final circuit before battling on into fourth place behind Master Publisher.
That followed a comfortable win over 2100m at Bunbury and a close fast-finishing second to Antero over 2536m at Gloucester Park.
Master Publisher will start from the No. 4 barrier this week and reinsman Gary Hall jnr said that the four-year-old faced a stern test. “It’s a red-hot field,” he said. “He can play a part, but he certainly faces a test.”
Chris Voak said he was looking forward to driving Boom Time, a lightly-raced seven-year-old trained by Ross Olivieri who will be racing first-up after a four-month absence. “He has an average draw (barrier five) but is working well and is an each-way chance.”
Boom Time has had only 27 starts for nine wins and five seconds. He finished strongly two starts ago to win convincingly from Triroyale Brigade and Just Wing It.
Pradason, trained and driven by Aiden de Campo, has had 25 starts for eight wins and ten placings. He has won in weaker company at Albany at his past two starts and looks tested from the No. 6 barrier.
The Phil Duggan-trained Jesse Allwood is racing with great enthusiasm and will have admirers from the No. 2 barrier with Deni Roberts in the sulky. He maintained his excellent form when he finished strongly to be third behind Bettor Copagoodone in a 2503m stand last Friday night.
Pocket The Cash is the first of several good drives for Egerton-Green, who will be strongly fancied to win the final two events with Sweet Maddison in race seven, a 2536m event for mares, and with Chumani in the final event, a 2096m stand for square gaiters.
