Early in November last year Mister Smartee fought on grandly to finish second to Minstrel in the 2024 WA Pacing Cup, and at Gloucester Park on Friday night he showed that he is ready to go one better when he lines up for the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on December 12.
Since last year’s second placing Mister Smartee, now a tougher and more experienced five-year-old, has contested three more group 1 feature events, winning them all, the 2024 Golden Nugget, the Nullarbor slot race last April and the Fremantle Cup the following month.
On Friday night he was the $3 favourite from barrier five in the $100,000 group 2 James Brennan Memorial when he gave a bold frontrunning performance to win comfortably from Minstrel ($3.40) and Magnificent Storm ($3.80), rating 1.56.1 over the 2536m.
This gave Mister Smartee his second all-the-way victory in the Brennan Memorial, following his easy victory over Sangue Reale and Tenzing Bromac in October 2024.
This was a triumph for Stuart McDonald, who not only drove the New Zealand-bred pacer confidently and skilfully while the gelding’s trainer Gary Hall snr and regular driver Gary Hall jnr were away in New Zealand but had the responsibility of having him at his peak for Friday night’s assignment.
“With the boss and Junior being away and to have the horse right on the night and to win a big race was a big relief,” said the 31-year-old McDonald. “I’m not the trainer; I’m just an assistant, but it is nice to get the result. And it is pleasing to know that they trusted me to have Mister Smartee right on the night.”
Rolling Fire, a $91 outsider, burst straight to the front from the No. 4 barrier, but with the Justin Prentice-trained five-year-old having his first start for twelve weeks, reinsman Trent Wheeler was happy to relinquish the lead to Mister Smartee after 200m.
Minstrel began from out wide at barrier eight and he settled down in eighth place before Deni Roberts wasted no time in dashing the eight-year-old forward to move to the breeze after 400m. Magnificent Storm began from the inside of the back line and Aiden De Campo got him into the one-wide line soon after the start. Magnificent Storm finished strongly from eighth at the bell.
“It was good to get it nice and easy early after a comfortable lead time,” said McDonald. “And after that I thought if Mister Smartee didn’t go on and win you would probably be running out of excuses for him.
“The lead time was so slow that the final mile wouldn’t matter, and I wasn’t worried that Minstrel was trying to keep it honest. I wasn’t too worried about the pressure, considering the slow lead time, and I was confident Mister Smartee would outsprint the others.
“So, I got rolling in the middle stages to make it hard for the backmarkers.” The 400m sections of the final mile went by in 28.9sec., 28.8sec., 27.4sec. and 29.1sec.
Mister Smartee, who has amassed $1,354,296 in prizemoney from 20 wins and five placings from 30 starts, will have his final hit-out before the Pacing Cup when he contests the $100,000 J. P. Stratton Cup next Friday week.
Neither Minstrel nor Magnificent Storm lost any admirers, with Roberts heaping praise on Minstrel, saying: “Mister Smartee got the advantage of the draw over us tonight, and I was very happy with Minstrel who dug so deep and fought so hard. We ran such good time, considering how strong the wind was, and it was a good effort to hold Magnificent Storm in the final stages.”
