by Ken Casellas
It’s extremely difficult to recommend a mare who has managed one win from her past 48 starts and boasts a losing sequence of 16 but Machulbeatchu, a six-year-old prepared at Northam by Lang Inwood, has a chance of sending punters home on a winning note by overcoming the No. 6 barrier in the final event, the Sky Racing Pace, at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Machulbeatchu, who has a poor winning record of seven per cent, caught the eye at Pinjarra on Monday afternoon when she was restrained to the rear from barrier five, was eighth in the one-wide line at the bell and then was hopelessly blocked for a clear passage in the final stages before Chris Voak got her clear in the final 100m.
Machulbeatchu then sprouted wings, out seven wide, to snatch third placing behind Our Artemisia and The Prodigy. It was not a strong field, but neither is the line-up of nine runners in Friday night’s M0 event over the sprint journey of 1730m.
The only runner in the field to have won a race in their past ten starts is Free To Air, who will be driven from the outside barrier by Dean Miller for Pinjarra trainer Chris King. Free To Air made most of the running and held on to win by a half-head from Donovan Bromac over 2100m at Bunbury three starts ago.
Female trainers prepare six of the nine runners, with Debbie Padberg represented by polemarker Nothing In Between, Ready For Takeoff and Bettors Avenue, Wendy Boyd by R J Bopper and Our Clarisa and Maryann White by Lipizzaner.
Sarah Suvaljko hopes to get a flying start to the 2017-18 season by winning the Retravision Pace with Bettor Twisted, the solitary runner off the back line in the 1730m sprint event. Chris Lewis will handle the experienced five-year-old whose past couple of runs have been full of merit.
Bettor Twisted was eighth at the bell and sustained a strong burst, out wide, to finish a close sixth behind Rowan Skipper over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Tuesday night. He travelled five wide over the final 500m and was doing his best work on the line.
At his previous outing, last Friday week, Bettor Twisted started from barrier nine, was 11th early and ninth on the pegs at the bell before finishing solidly into fourth place behind Cest Lheure.
Brilliant mare Dodolicious will resume racing after an absence of three and a half months when she starts out wide at barrier seven in the TABtouch Westbred Pace. Owned and trained by Skye Bond and with Ryan Warwick in the sulky, Dodolicious, the winner of 15 of her 28 starts, should prove too good for her seven rivals.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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