3 minute read

Exciting prospect Mister Smartee has made a winning start to his time in Western Australia, taking out the Lucky Charm Newsagency Pinjarra Pace (2185m) at Pinjarra this afternoon.

The Gary Hall Snr-trained pacer closed a near unbackable $1.03 favourite with TABtouch for his first WA start and duly saluted.

The three-year-old was able to lead from barrier one and score a comfortable 8.6m win over Colorado Banner.

Mister Smartee rated 1:58.8 and sizzled home 56.5 under the guidance of Gary Hall Jnr.

Hall Snr said he's been impressed by the son of Always B Miki's debut.

"I think he's a machine," Hall Snr told The Trots WA.

"If Jnr revved him up I think he would've gone even quicker.

"I think he can run 54 that horse, but you just have to make him do it."

Hall Snr said he would make a decision in the coming days whether to run Mister Smartee at Pinjarra again or head to a three-year-old race at Gloucester Park Friday week.

Meanwhile, star driver Chris Voak is confident he has put the difficult times of the 2022 season behind him, after he notched up his 50th win for the 2023 season on Friday.

Voak steered the Barry Howlett-trained My Prayer to victory in the opening event at Gloucester Park, continuing his bounce back from a frustrating 2022.

Voak also trained and drove Carabao to run second in the York Cup at Northam on Saturday night.

Only Gary Hall Jnr, Deni Roberts, Shannon Suvaljko and Kyle Symington have scored more wins than Voak this year.

Voak said training more runners had helped his driving.

"I've ventured into the training scene a little more in the past nine to 12 months," Voak told TABradio.

"It's definitely aided the driving side of things.

"I'm starting to build a handy little stable and am getting some quality horses to drive again.

"With regular drives and driving nice horses, along comes the winners."

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