HAS THE ANSWERS READY TO TURN THE TABLES

Star pacer Precious Dylan, the master of the brilliant Has The Answers at his past three starts, faces a moment of truth when he clashes with his arch rival in the Find Thirty Every Day Pace over 2536m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

Has The Answers showed that he was ready to turn the tables when he put in a phenomenal performance last Friday night to finish fifth behind Total Defiance after starting from 60m and then losing about 80m when he began badly.

Has The Answers made up an enormous amount of ground and went to the post powerfully to finish 18m behind Total Defiance.

This week Has The Answers will appreciate a return to mobile racing and he gained an important advantage on Precious Dylan by drawing barrier five, while Precious Dylan will start from the outside in a quality field of eight.

Precious Dylan, trained at Karnup by Grant Williams, has come back to racing after a 19-month absence in magnificent style, winning stylishly at each of his five appearances. Many keen judges will support him to extend his winning sequence this week.

Precious Dylan has clashed with Has The Answers in three of those five races and has beaten him each time. Has The Answers led in all three events in which he was unable to withstand Precious Dylan’s withering finishing burst.

There is little doubt that Has The Answers will burst straight to the front this week and Chris Lewis will dictate terms, while Nathan Turvey is likely to restrain Precious Dylan and conserve his energy for a final effort. Turvey will be driving Precious Dylan for the first time in the New Zealand-bred eight-year-old’s 59-start career.

Turvey will replace Williams, who was suspended for 16 days for causing interference in a race last Friday night. Turvey is driving in superb form and was seen at his best at Narrogin on Tuesday night when he brought 4/1 chance Pacific Idol home with a perfectly-timed burst from the rear to snatch a last-stride nose victory over the 5/4 favourite Pandemic.

Has The Answers and Precious Dylan, who between them have amassed $956,237 in prizemoney, are not likely to have things all their own way.

Outstanding four-year-old Ima Rocket Star and top-flight five-year-old Alzona are both capable of causing an upset.

Ima Rocket Star, trained by Greg Bond and a winner at 13 of his 26 starts, has been freshened up since he covered extra ground and finished a close second to Precious Dylan in the 2670m Pinjarra Cup three Mondays ago. Has The Answers set the pace in the Cup and finished third.

Alzona, trained by Gary Hall sen., resumed after a five-month absence at Gloucester Park last Friday night when he started from 30m in a 2503m stand, dashed forward in the middle stages to race without cover and finished doggedly to be second behind Tsunami Lombo.

 DAZZLING TRIAL POINTS TO IM THEMIGHTYQUINN

A sizzling trial at Byford last Sunday is a strong pointer that the star five-year-old Im Themightyquinn will make a successful return to racing when he starts off the back mark of 30m in the Channel Nine Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

He rated 1.58.3 in winning the 2150m mobile trial by a length from the brilliant Ima Rocket Star. The most significant feature of the workout was that he scorched over the final 400m in 26.6sec., with some clockers recording 26.4sec.

Im Themightyquinn dashed over the final 400m in 28.1sec.at Byford the previous Sunday when he won a 2550m stand by 50m from Spunky Monkey.

These trials showed that trainer Gary Hall sen. will have the New Zealand-bred gelding close to his peak for his first start since his wonderful fast-finishing third to Bondy and Karloo Mick in the 3065m A. G. Hunter Cup at Moonee Valley in the first week of February this year.

Im Themightyquinn, the winner of $677,989 in stakes from his 16 wins and 18 placings from 50 starts, is a standing-start specialist, with his eight appearances in stands in Australia producing five wins, one second and two thirds.

His clash on Friday night with the highly-rated New Zealand-bred seven-year-old Report For Duty should be one of the highlights of the excellent program.

Report For Duty, who will start from the 20m mark, warmed up for the race with an impressive display at Pinjarra on Monday when he started from 50m and enjoyed a good passage in the one-wide line before finishing strongly to win easily from Glacier Star, rating 1.58.6 over the 2609m. He dashed over the final 800m in 57.1sec.

While Im Themightyquinn and Report For Duty are expected to fight out the finish, there should be a keen battle for the minor placing between in-form pacers Our Gent, Me Ole Mate Lombo and Nowuseeme.

 FRONTRUNNING McGINTYSGOAT LOOKS THE GOODS

Many punters over the years have bemoaned the fact that they have backed a goat. But many astute harness racing fans will be pinning their faith in a goat when they have a wager in the Westralian Auto Finance Pace over 2096m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.

The goat in question is five-year-old McGintysgoat, an extremely consistent pacer who will be making his first appearance at Gloucester Park.

Trained at Oakford by Ross Olivieri and with Chris Lewis in the sulky, McGintysgoat looks ideally placed at the No. 1 barrier off the front in the stand over a sprint journey.

McGintysgoat, a winner of three races in Victoria and 13 in South Australia, has won at each of his first two starts in WA. Olivieri took the gelding to Geraldton to contest races there on the first two Sundays of this month and, driven by Greg Kersley, McGintysgoat excelled as a frontrunner in scoring all-the-way victories in mobiles over 2135m and 1735m.

Bred by Greg and Carol Lutz and raced in partnership by them with Douglas Webster, McGintysgoat has been a model of consistency, with his 59 starts producing 18 wins, 22 seconds and three thirds for stakes of $67,953.

McGintysgoat has raced only three times in stands, winning by a nose at Globe Derby Park last January before being unplaced at his next two appearances in stands.
 
Greg and Carol Lutz are hoping that McGintysgoat will prove half as successful as Scruffy Murphy, a pacer they sent to Perth to race a few years ago. Scruffy Murphy won once at Pinjarra and 11 times at Gloucester Park in 2007-08-09 and now, as a ten-year-old, is still racing keenly in South Australia.

Scruffy Murphy has won nine races this season and he has earned $522,408 from his 48 wins and 52 placings from 165 starts.

 PURNELL LOOKS TO END MEETING WITH A BIRTHDAY GIFT

Balingup panel beater Terry Purnell has high hopes of celebrating his 63rd birthday on Friday night by winning the final event, the Retravision Pace, with his smart three-year-old Thomas With Steam.

Purnell owns the colt with his wife Ann and he produced him in fine fettle when Colin Brown drove him to a most impressive victory at Gloucester Park a fortnight ago.

A 12/1 chance, Thomas With Steam started from barrier four, dashed to the front after 200m and went on to score easily from Hooza Clever Dan, with highly-rated three-year-olds Why Live Dangerously and Chillin Dylan fading to be unplaced after hard runs.

Thomas With Steam, knocked down for $12,000 at the 2008 Gloucester Standardbred yearling sale, gave a strong indication of his ability by sprinting the final 800m in 57.9sec. and rating a slick 1.57.6 over the 2130m journey.
He will start from the No. 6 barrier and might not find it as easy to get to the front in the early stages as he did at his previous outing. However, he is a versatile colt and is capable of a strong effort when forced to race in the breeze or when held up for a late burst.

Drawn inside Thomas With Steam are the promising filly Sheeza Cougar (an all-the-way Northam winner three starts ago), Bonscot (a last-start Harvey winner)and Kissed Flush (who led and won easily at Gloucester Park two starts ago).

However, the hardest for Thomas With Steam to beat could well be Lombo Navigator, who has been freshened up since his solid fifth behind Crombie and David Hercules in the WA Derby on April 16.

Lombo Navigator, who will start from the outside barrier in a field of eight, is trained at Capel by Andrew de Campo and has shown excellent potential, winning at nine of his 18 starts.