Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Victorian-bred six-year-old Whatabro has raced with youthful enthusiasm throughout his 144-start career, and he boosted his earnings to $261,282 from 28 wins and 44 placings when he sprinted home fast to win the 2130m Westside Auto Wholesale Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“He is an absolute ripper horse who loves racing and has a great constitution,” said his trainer Michael Brennan. “For a horse like him to win more than a quarter of a million is testament to the breed.”
Whatabro, driven perfectly by Chris Voak, was a $25.10 outsider who ended a losing sequence of 18. His previous win was when he started out wide at barrier eight and set the pace before beating Dont Bother Me None and Galactic Star as a $30.40 outsider ($41 on the fixed market) at Gloucester Park early in March this year.
“Darren and Julie Billinger looked after him very well (in South Australia) before he came to me,” said Brennan. “When he has drawn barrier one and leads, he has proved very hard to beat. But he has been awfully unlucky with bad draws. And he has also been running good races in Free-For-Alls.”
Mea Culpa, the $1.55 favourite from the No. 1 barrier, had to be driven hard to hold the lead when $11 chance Mr Fantastic began speedily from barrier six and got three-quarters of a length in front.
Voak settled Whatabro in fourth place, three back on the pegs, before he eased the gelding off the inside with 850m to travel to enjoy the one-out, one-back passage behind the breeze horse Mr Fantastic. Whatabro finished strongly with a 28.5sec. final 400m section to win by a half-length from Mea Culpa, with the $3.40 chance Kimble getting clear on the home turn (after trailing the pacemaker) to be a head away in third place.