10 December 2020 | Ken Casellas
Leading reinsman Chris Voak had the choice of five drives in the City of Perth Twilight Hawkers Market Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night and he gave punters a valuable tip by opting to handle the experienced five-year-old Rock Me Over.
Rock Me Over, prepared by Serpentine trainer Matt Scott, has a losing sequence of six and just one win from his past 20 starts. But he should prove hard to beat from the important No. 1 barrier in the 2536m event.
The WA-bred pacer, a veteran of 111 starts for 18 wins and 36 placings, has a modest record over 2536m three wins, three seconds and one third from 15 attempts but he has a good record over 2130m and 2536m from the No. 1 barrier 11 starts for five wins, two seconds, two thirds, two fourths, one fifth and one tenth (when he met with severe interference). He is a sound frontrunner and has set the pace at five of his 11 starts from the inside barrier and has sat behind the pacemaker on four other occasions.
Rock Me Over started from the No. 4 barrier in a 12130m event last Friday night and enjoyed no luck when eight behind the frontrunning Thereugo. Rock Me Over was trapped wide early before being restrained to the rear. He started a three-wide burst approaching the bell and was not disgraced in finishing four lengths from the winner.
His task was made difficult because Thereugo dawdled through the lead time in 37.8sec. and the opening quarters in 31.5sec. and 29.9sec. before giving his rivals little chance by sprinting over the final 400m sections in 27.4sec. and 28.7sec.
Voak had a difficult decision in choosing Rock Me Over ahead of the Ross Olivieri-trained Thats Perfect, who was handled by Voak at his West Australian debut last Friday night when he began off 20m in a 2503m stand. He was eleventh in the middle stages before moving to eighth at the bell and finishing with a spirited burst to be second to the frontrunning Bettorgrinanbarit.
Thats Perfect will start from the outside (No. 9) on the front line on Friday night, but he has the ability to overcome that disadvantage. He will be driven by Chris Lewis.
Other runners in Friday’s event that Voak had the choice of driving are Sokys Big Bullet (who will be driven by Morgan Woodley), Marquisard (Aldo Cortopassi) and Free To Air (Shannon Suvaljko).
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