06 June 2019 | Tim Walker
It’s quite possible the best race on Friday night’s meeting is the last one.
For those willing to stay up until 9.42, they are set to be treated to an outstanding three-year-old event, with six of the state’s best in that age group set to do battle.
With rich Westsired and Westbred races just around the corner, this shapes up as one of the final chances for these three-year-olds to stake their claim for a slice of the lucrative prize pool.
On paper, it appears as if the Justin Prentice or Colin Brown stable will take out the Team Trolio Harcourts Realty Pace (2130m).
Prentice will be represented by Know When To Run and Back In Twenty, who have barrier one and four respectively.
Know When To Run produced, arguably, the run of the night last Friday night when second to Gee Jay Kay, while Back In Twenty was third.
Meanwhile, Brown has Its Rock And Roll and Patrickthepiranha engaged from barrier two and six respectively.
Its Rock And Roll and Patrickthepiranha haven’t started since finishing second and fourth respectively to Theo Aviator in the Pearl Classic last month.
It is that pacer, Theo Aviator, who will be out to bring about their undoing again this Friday night.
The Aldo Cortopassi-trained and driven pacer has put together a sound record of 11 wins from 27 starts, with the Pearl success the main highlight.
Theo Aviator has a tricky draw of barrier five to navigate from on Friday though, but Cortopassi said he would still look to roll forward into a prominent position.
“We needed a run this week and it’s held together, which is good,” he told GPTV.
“We knew we were going to draw badly on the preference win dollars.
“We will put him up in the firing line early.
“There is probably a chance we are going to have to do some work off the arm.
“In a small field, if that happens, we might be a chance to drop in somewhere as well.”
Galante, to start from barrier three, rounds out the six horse field for trainer Bryan Cousins and reinsman Kim Prentice.
The Art Major gelding produced a strong performance last start on May 28 at Gloucester Park, where he sat in the breeze and wore down Our Virtuoso.
Prior to that, Galante was unplaced behind Theo Aviator in the Pearl.
Cousins said Galante deserved his standing as one of the outsiders in the race, but was hopeful he could produce another tough performance.
“Everyone who has a three-year-old hopes they can progress through to the top grade,” he told GPTV.
“He got through and competed in the Derby and some of the other feature three-year-old races, but he was just short of the really top class ones.
“He’s been up for a while, but his last couple of starts have been pretty good.
“It’s an intriguing race and how it’s going to be run.
“I’m just hoping my horse can be really competitive and if he finishes first three I’ll be happy.”
Know When To Run could be running to give Gary Hall Jnr his 150th winner for the season.
The leading reinsman currently has 148 winners to his name this season and looks well poised to be among the winners this week.
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