11 September 2020 | Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing
It has been a busy week in Tasmania with harness racing held in Devonport on Sunday night before mid-week racing in Launceston on Wednesday night.
Harness racing heads back to Hobart on Sunday night with the Sweepstakes series commencing.
Two heats of the colts and geldings will be staged, while the fillies will contest a prelude ahead of the $20,000 finals on 27 September.
The Stars
Heath Szczypka – continued his good recent run when Reign Of Pain scored in the McKillop Insurance Brokers Discretionary on Wednesday night. The gelded son of Armbro Operative has now won 15-races and depending on his rating over the festive season he could be a contender for some country cups with his standing start manners.
Kivik – won his second race at start five when he outstayed his rivals in the Find the LPC on Facebook Stakes. The gelded son of Courage Under Fire was well handled by Ben Parker who elected to lead up the three-wide line of the final lap to score in a last half mile of 57.1s.
Rohan Hillier– walked away from Launceston with two winners. He put the polish on in-form pacer Lip Reader who was handled by stable foreman Conor Crook before Hillier provided a well-rated drive in front on the Michael Laugher-trained Christian Jaz.
The Carrick Crew – the Mark Yole-trained and driven pacer Black Ops ended a run of placings when the eight-year-old entire won on Wednesday, coming from last. The next race was won by Carrick based driver Hannah Van Dongen on the Ray Pullen-trained Castor Troy and not to be outdone, Carrick based driver Adrian Collins rated Art Frenzy well in front to score for another Carrick local trainer, Craig Van Dongen.
Ben Yole – trained six winners for the week, with four winners in Devonport and then a double in Launceston which was a relief for those that took the $1.12 to train two or more winners with an online bookmaker that offered a market on how many winners Yole would prepare on the card.
Troy McDonald – teamed up with Ben Yole to drive a treble on Sunday in Devonport before winning the opening race on Wednesday aboard My Ultimate Romeo.
Multiple Winners
Devonport – Sunday evening
Ben Yole – training quartet; Weerrook Harry, Amazing Daisy, Tarleton Riley and Proficient.
Troy McDonald – driving treble; Weerrook Harry, Amazing Daisy and Tarleton Riley.
Geoff Smith – training double; Aitutaki and Laid Back Kenny.
Launceston – Wednesday evening
Ben Yole – training double; My Ultimate Romeo and Island Rocknroll.
Rohan Hillier – double; he trained Lip Reader and drove Christian Jazz.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Devonport – Sunday evening
Agouda Ruler 58.32s, Proficient 58.64sm Longfellow 58.89s, Laid Back Kenny 59.14s and Lets Go Bill 59.17s.
Launceston – Wednesday evening
Feel The Burn 56.25s, Castor Troy 56.40s, Kivik 56.50s, Monarkmac 56.52s and Hezatoff 56.57s.
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Devonport – Sunday evening
Hit’s: Amazing Daisy $5.00 into $4.60 and Tarleton Riley $9.50 into $4.80.
Defied The Drift: Weerrook Harry $4.80 out to $6.50, Laid Back Kenny $9.00 out to $15, Proficient $4.00 out to $5.00 and Agouda Ruler $2.80 out to $3.20.
Missed: My Ultimate Major $8.50 into $5.00, Jigamaroo $5.00 into $4.20, Ozzie Major $8.00 into $5.50, Pink Ponder $10 into $6.50 and Somedan $2.70 into $2.10.
Launceston – Wednesday evening
Hit’s: My Ultimate Romeo $7.00 into $4.60, Lip Reader $1.75 into $1.40, Reign Of Pain $9.00 into $5.50,
Defied The Drift: Kivik $2.60 out to $3.40, Castor Troy $6.50 out to $7.50, Art Frenzy $21 out to $51 and Christian Jaz $3.00 out to $4.40.
Missed: My Ultimate Major $17 into $8.00, Royal Reactor $12 into $9.00, Gauci $14 into $7.00, Lord Stark $8.00 into $5.50, Live For Peace $12 into $7.00, Bettabrown Tiger $4.20 into $3.40, My Girl Pearl $7.00 into $6.00 and Our Percius $10 into $5.50.
Races three and nine have been excluded due to the late scratchings of the early favourites.
Trial File
Devonport – Sunday evening
Trial 1: A rating 35-59 trial was held with a field of three facing the starter over 1930 metres where three-year-old gelding Kivik led all the way to score by 1.7 metres over Capitallee and Jimmy Mischief in 2m 3.5s. The form has been strengthened by Kivik winning in Launceston on Wednesday night.
Hobart – Monday evening
Trial 1: The Rodney Ashwood-trained Ninefortwentythree led all the way to take out the first trial over 2090 metres. Driver Ricky Duggan allowed the gelded son of Heston Blue Chip to do his own thing out in the lead where he proved too good by 3.1 metres over Most Perfect Major who stuck to her task well, with Wee Rosie a further 23 metres away third in 2m 5.8s.
Trial 2: Trainer Rodney Ashwood was in the winners stall again when Four Starzz Shark gelding Hughie Playboy who sat three-back along the marker pegs before running to the lead at the 500 metres to go on and score by 24 metres over Maxi Jolt and Iden Delight in 2m 7.1s for the 2090 metre trip.
Trial 3: Looked to be a one-sided affair on paper with Call Me Hector rated at 112 taking on rating 57 pacer Donny In Paris. Hector went straight to the lead and after a lead time of 36.7s trainer-driver Matthew Copper then allowed the pacer to run quarters of 31.8s 29.4s, 27.5s and 28.7s to score by 37.6 metres in 1m 58.6s.
Trial Replays
You can view most trials since the resuming from the COVID break by clicking here.
Week Ahead
Sunday in Hobart, we see the two-year-old’s step out as the delayed 2020 Sweepstakes series commences.
Two heats will be held of the colts and geldings division with the first heat set to be a great clash between Stormy Sanz who has won his last three, Franko Joe who was an impressive winner on debut, Agouda Ruler who has already won five races and last start Hobart winner Rocknroll Nitro.
Heat Two sees last start winners Rocknovertime and Impulsive George go head to head also with last start winner Rocknovertime, professional placegetter Longfellow and Ninefortwentythree who has won three of his four trials.
A prelude will be staged of the fillies division where Blue Bonnet winner Written In Silk has drawn barrier four on the second row in the mile event where a couple of highly raced fillies draw well to add some interest.
The two $20,000 finals will be held on 27 September.
Also, Sunday night sees the running of the David Medhurst Memorial for the three-year-old and above maidens.
Former kiwi Loch Ness Franco makes her Australian debut after being placed in two of three starts in New Zealand’s South Island, the Changeover mare impressed recently when winning a Carrick Park trial on 29 August.
Some Tasmanian pacers doing battle over the next few days at metropolitan venues include;
Menangle – Saturday night
Race 2 Horse 8 No Apachemee.
Terang (Metro meeting) – Saturday night
Race 6 Horse 3 Terryrama.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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