07 May 2018 | Shane Yates
The sensational weekend of harness racing continued in Hobart on Sunday night with the arrival of new stars on the horizon.
The entertainment at the Tasmanian Pacing Club meeting rolled on from the exciting night of racing at the Devonport Paceway on Friday night.
The Elderslie Horse Care Two-Year-Old Sweepstakes Preludes were the features on the card with debutantes taking the honours in both the Fillies Division and the Colts and Geldings.
Resurgent Storm and Spoilt Sport went to the line in a trial in Hobart a week earlier with only a head between and that form was to hold up at their first official starts.
The Roger Whitmore bred, owned and trained colt Resurgent Storm showed his class by cruising to a 5.6-metre victory in the Colts and Geldings Prelude recording 2:00.5 for the mile.
“I was very happy with his debut performance, there is a lot of improvement in him so to see him find the line so well was pleasing,” said the delighted trainer.
“Ricky (Dugggan) took him back at the start just to allow him to find his feet and then whipped around them at the bell to sit outside the leader and from there he controlled the race until Ricky asked him to go turning for home,” said Roger.
“He’s not wound up yet, we have the Final of the Sweepstakes Friday week and the Dandy Patch is still a few weeks away so I’ll be aiming for him to be cherry ripe for that.”
Resurgent Storm, a Betterthancheddar-Resurgent Star colt, is a half brother to Resurgent Dream, runner-up in the Granny Smith Stakes on Friday night.
“I’m not totally sure what comes next for Resurgent Dream, she has put in such a great season so she may go to the paddock for a spell,” Roger said contemplating.
“We haven’t seen the best of her yet, she had injuries in her two-year-old season and endured sickness for much of her three-year-old year so this has been her first full preparation.”
Spoilt Sport made a stunning debut in the Fillies Sweepstakes, spearing to the early lead for trainer-driver Rodney Ashwood.
“We drew well on the front line and she can run the gate so I took advantage of those factors and we got to the top very easily,” said Rodney.
“Spoilt Sport travelled well to the 400-metre pole and the effort was starting to tell on Juniper after a tough run in the death, I knew Enterprising Milly had a perfect run through into the one-one from the second line so I decided to go for broke and if we got run down late so be it.”
The Sportswriter-Tara Lassie filly darted away with a winning break and although Enterprising Milly was cutting her down on the line she held on for a courageous victory.
“She has taken some work to get to the track, she’s been a handful at times but the penny is starting to drop, she ran home in 57-seconds so we will tackle the Sweepstakes final in a fortnight and set her for the upcoming Evicus Series.”
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