Former Devonport night club manager Leigh Rand tasted his biggest success since returning to the harness racing industry when Pardoe Plugger flashed down the outside to score in the Group 2 Maxfield Drilling Raider Stakes in Devonport on Sunday night.
Rand walked away from the industry to concentrate on work commitments in the late 1980’s before taking out his licence again in August.
The $50,000 feature was the geldings second career win at only his third racetrack appearance.
“We used to train at Pardoe Beach all the time, and Ian Kent who bred him is a St Kilda tragic so that’s where his nickname comes from and we put the two together,” explained Rand.
“He is a high-speed horse, we have had to work a lot on him to get him to come to hand,” said the trainer.
The win was also the biggest victory for reinsman Ben Parker, who settled the Western Edition gelding one-out and three-back before joining the three-wide line at the 450-metre mark to fly home to score by three metres over Mister Gently and Resurgent Storm, in a mile rate of 2m 5.0s for the 2665-metre trip.
“He did over race in his first start, so it was a blessing he settled when we got back in behind them, but when there were some good horses up in front of us, I was concerned we were too far back but when I asked him to go, he certainly went,” said driver Ben Parker.
“You don’t see too many horses make ground that wide (in Devonport), but he kept finding,” added the driver.
Pardoe Plugga is by Western Edition and is the first horse to race out of the River Khan mare Hotline.
Still Hungover completed the Bandbox-Granny Smith double with a win that was almost brought undone by the mares racing manners.
From inside of the second-row Duggan drove for luck early and gained the one-out one-back position before the mare broke at the 2300-metre mark, despite losing 70 metres no other runner made a move around the mare which resulted in her still being able to obtain the one-one.
After racing three-wide from the 1000-metre mark, the filly swept to the lead turning off the back straight but halfway down the home straight disaster struck when she appeared to shy at something and run out.
“It was a bit hairy for a while, she got out of her gear, and she don’t do that, but I did pull her sideways to get off the pegs and just got unbalanced,” said driver Ricky Duggan.
“Even up the straight the last time when there’s nothing with her she wants to switch off and pull up, and she wanted to run up the track and throw it away,” added the master reinsman with the win his record 29th Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes win.
Trainer Rodney Ashwood is unsure on the mare’s future plans going forward.
“I will discuss that with the owners, we may turn her out and look at the mares races or maybe send her to Melbourne, I just don’t know until I talk to them,” said Ashwood on TasracingTV’s coverage.
Lip Reader was a brilliant winner of the N.W.T.H.L.A Cup courtesy of a copybook drive from his trainer, Rohan Hillier, who indicated the pacer will be aimed at next months $30,000 Tassie Golden Apple.
Another highlight on the card was that of Upanatom who gave his Brighton trainer Tammy Langley her first training win
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