by Ken Casellas
Brookies Jet has managed just one win from his past 28 starts, but he looms large as a strong winning prospect in the opening event, the Allwood Stud Farm Pace, at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The five-year-old, owned and trained by Matt Scott, will be driven by Mitch Miller and he put the writing on the wall for a win in the near future when he started from barrier nine, was restrained to the rear and finished boldly from tenth at the bell to finish an extremely close third to Heza Cracker and Anna Faye in a thrilling four-way photo at Gloucester Park on Tuesday of last week.
At his previous outing, two weeks earlier, Brookies Jet raced three back on the pegs before finishing solidly to be third behind Dana Duke and Whozideawasthis.
Brookies Jet’s most recent victory was when he set the pace and beat Real Zeal over 2050m at Collie in March. Real Zeal, to be driven by Miller’s elder brother Dean, will start from the coveted No. 1 barrier in Friday night’s event and the six-year-old will have many admirers.
The major danger to Brookies Jet and Real Zeal looks set to be Bethany Aitch, a four-year-old who has won at seven of her 30 starts, along with 13 placings. Bethany Aitch, trained and driven by Nathan Turvey, was last with 600m to travel before finishing strongly, out wide, to be fifth behind Sea Me Smile at Northam on Tuesday night.
Bethany Aitch also was impressive at her previous outing, over 2536m at Gloucester Park last Friday night, when she was restrained to the rear from barrier nine and was last at the bell before sustaining a solid three-wide burst which carried her to fifth place behind Kissmecougar. She sat behind the pacemaker and won from Real Package three starts ago.
Scott has a handy second string in Friday night’s event in Charlie El, who will be driven by Jocelyn Young from barrier eight. Charlie El enjoyed an ideal trail behind the pacemaker when second to The Spinster over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Monday afternoon.
The Debbie Padberg-trained Forever Faster will have friends after he ended a losing sequence of 17 when Isaac Edwards drove him to an all-the-way victory over 2130m on Monday afternoon. Forever Faster is handily drawn at barrier three on the front line.
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