Nothing, it appears, is out of reach for veteran pacing marvel Minstrel, who is racing with youthful enthusiasm and notched his 29TH win with a brilliant performance in the $50,000 Sky Racing Active San Simeon Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The New Zealand-bred eight-year-old, prepared by champion trainers Greg and Sky Bond and driven astutely by Deni Roberts, defied the odds to easily beat top-flight five-year-olds Never Ending and Mister Smartee.
“That was unreal,” said Roberts. “He is showing a really good turn of foot this time (in his current campaign) when you would think he would be getting slower because he’s getting older.
“But he is just getting better, and I was rapt with tonight’s run. He now has that versatility when you can race him with a sit.”
Minstrel was the $4.70 second fancy, with Mister Smartee ($1.75) dominating the betting. But Minstrel overcame the disadvantage of starting from the outside barrier (No. 9) on the front line. He settled down in ninth position while Arma Xfactor ($34) was setting the pace after a fast lead time of 35.8sec. followed by comfortable opening 400m sections of 31sec. and 29.1sec.
Mister Smartee, who settled down in seventh place, began a three-wide move after a lap to move to the breeze at the 1200m, and he finally got to the front with about 375m to travel.
Minstrel began a spirited burst from the rear 950m from home, and he raced three wide for the remainder of the race before surging to the front 100m from the post and beating the $13 third fancy Never Ending by just over a length after final quarters of 27.9sec. and 28.2sec. Minstrel rated 1.54.9 and he boosted his record to 75 starts for 29 wins, 25 placings and $1,690,483.
“I thought that when I took off, we would be hard at work,” said Roberts. “But at the 400m I knew we had the measure of Mister Smartee. All we had to do was to get around the final corner.”
Minstrel will now have two runs before contesting the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on December 12 --- the $100,000 James Brennan Memorial next Friday week and the $100,000 Stratton Cup a fortnight later.
