Ken Casellas | Photo: Pacepix
Five-year-old Watching Our Coin has blossomed into a smart pacer after arriving in Australia last November with a New Zealand record of one win from 28 starts.
He was a $4.60 chance at Gloucester Park on Friday night when he gave a typical tough performance to win the 1730m Vale Gordon Pike Pace, rating 1.55.5 over the 1730m journey.
Watching Our Coin, trained by Michael Young, has been quite a revelation this year, with his nine West Australian starts producing six wins and three placings, taking his career record to 37 starts for seven wins, 11 placings and $75,203 in stakes.
This wonderful form comes after he had managed a solitary New Zealand win when he was an $18.60 chance in a 2600m standing-start event at Addington in February 2022. He raced three back on the pegs before finishing solidly to record a 2.3.6 rate.
Gary Hall Jnr had to drive Watching Our Coin hard to achieve victory on Friday night. He applied the whip vigorously to get the gelding to muster early pace from the No. 5 barrier. Watching Our Coin then moved to the breeze, with the polemarker and $3 second fancy Cheer The Major setting a solid pace.
Watching Our Coin was hard driven in the final lap when he got to the front on the home turn and won by a half-neck from Cheer The Major, with the $2.30 favourite Peter Petrify fighting on gamely to be a head away in third place after enjoying a perfect passage in the one-out, one-back position. The final 400m was covered in a slick 27.6sec.
“He is big and lazy but has a big diesel engine,” said Young. “He just keeps going and doesn’t stop.”
Hall praised Watching Our Coin for his competitive spirit, saying: “He likes to be told to do it. On the line he was doing it easy. There’s plenty of bottom to him.”