A smart track workout at Gloucester Park last Saturday morning --- combined with a favourable barrier --- are strong pointers that The Beachcomber will prove hard to beat in the $25,000 Clipsal and Schneider Electric Sales Classic final for three-year-old colts and geldings at pacing’s headquarters on Friday night.
Trainer Mike Reed declared that he was optimistic about the gelding’s prospects after he dashed over the final 800m in the workout in 57.2sec.
Driven by Mark Reed, The Beachcomber sat behind five-year-old Challenging before sprinting strongly to defeat the in-form gelding who followed two successive wins with a strong-finishing effort to be second to Your Excused at Gloucester Park on Tuesday night.
The Beachcomber, a $33,000 yearling who has won once from ten starts, will begin from the No. 2 barrier on the front line on Friday night with Colin Brown in the sulky.
“I’ve been really happy with him and his work has been good since his latest start (when fifth behind Bob Wheel at Gloucester Park on January 31),” Mike Reed said.
“I haven’t started him for a while. He’s had a niggling injury and I’ve been working on curing it.”
Bob Wheel, trained and driven by Ryan Bell, is likely to be favourite and looks very hard to beat. The Allamerican Ingot gelding will start from the No. 4 barrier and is sure to be prominent throughout.
He notched his third win from 19 starts when he raced without cover before dashing over the final 400m in 27.8sec. to win from Doc Ryan over 2190m at Northam on Thursday of last week. Bob Wheel also raced without cover before winning from All The Whispers at Gloucester Park two starts before that.
The Michael Brennan-trained Kasey John (Michael Grantham) cannot be left out of calculations after winning a 2180m trial at Pinjarra in dashing style on Monday afternoon. He led early and then sat behind the pacemaker Bouchee before sprinting the final 400m in 27.7sec. and winning by six lengths from Bouchee at a 2.0.9 rate.
However, he faces a stern test from the outside barrier (No. 9). He was automatically drawn on the outside after breaking badly soon after the start and then racing at the rear of the field at his latest outing, at Gloucester Park last Friday week. Kasey John has won at three of his six starts this season.
