03 May 2018 | Duncan Dornauf
The Launceston track was on fire last Sunday with many fast times recorded including a slick mile rate by Roger Ramjet in the free-for-all to be just outside the track record for the 2200-metre distance.
North-West coast trainers played a strong hand at the meeting with Shelley Barnes, Paul Ashwood and Steve Davis recording wins.
Old Beach trainer Paul Hill continued his good run with a training double.
There was a Tasmanian link in the Group 1 Australian Pacing Gold Fillies Final at Menangle in Sydney on Saturday night with the winner Soho Nolita being out of Tasmanian bred mare Pixel Perfect.
Pixel Perfect will now be a leading contender for the Australian Broodmare of the year award for this season as she is the dam of two other Group 1 winners this season in Soho Tribeca and Carlas Pixel.
This week the Four-year-old Sires Stakes finals will be held in Devonport in the twilight zone on Friday before the preludes of the Elderslie Horse Care Sweepstakes for two-year-olds in Hobart on Sunday.
The Stars
Ricky Duggan – had a brilliant night in the sulky in Launceston last week with a driving treble including a 10/10 drive on Out To Strike.
Shelley Barnes – has her team of horses going well in recent weeks including a training quinella with Mister Last and Yatsenyuk Leis.
Roger Ramjet – brilliant performance first up from a spell when he recorded a mile rate of 1:57.35 for the 2200-metre journey which was only .05 of a second outside the track record held by Lanercost and Melolyn.
Paul Ashwood – another north-west coast-based trainer whose team is performing well of late and he added another win to his season tally with Offthetopofmyhead who won his fifth race of the season courtesy of a brilliant drive from Rohan Hillier.
Jack Laugher – last season’s leading junior driver in Tasmania who is now based in Victoria flew home for a quick visit and was in the winner’s circle with Mach Three two-year-old filly Karalta Felesha who is trained by his father Michael.
Multiple Winners
Launceston – Sunday
Ricky Duggan – driving treble; Feelin Dusty, Out To Strike and Streitkid
Paul Hill – training double; Feelin Dusty and Streitkid.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action in Launceston on Sunday.
Modern Ruler 56.05, Stryker 56.23, Chirac 56.26, The Aussie 56.34 and Isaac 56.45.
View the sectionals across the Eight-races here.
Tasracing Official Price
Launceston
Hits: Mister Last $2.40 into $2.25, Feelin Dusty $2.50 into $2.30.
Defied The Drift: Offthetopofmyhead $3.00 out to $4.00, Out To Strike $4.80 out to $5.50, Artarama $3.90 out to $4.80, Streitkid $3.00 out to $3.40.
Missed: Mister Lennox $3.90 out to $3.30, Lead Singer $6.50 into $5.50.
Black Booker
The Aussie
This Juanita McKenzie trained pacer has plenty of class about him as we have seen with his five wins this season but it was very hard to ignore his fast finishing sprint in Launceston on Sunday when third behind Offthetopofmyhead.
Settling one-out and five-back from his second-row draw driver Rodney Ashwood was able to gain a three-wide cart up over the final 1100-metres of the race. The Aussie was slightly inconvenienced passing the 400-metre mark when the horse he was following broke free of interference and when he gained clear racing home he flew home in the quickest last quarter of the race of 27.95.
The Tasracing Calculated Sectionals recorded The Aussie being 13.4-metres behind the leader and second place getter Mister Magic Man at the 400-metre mark and he was only 5.7-metres behind the winner Offthetopofmyhead which shows the ground he made up.
Trial File
Hobart on Monday
There were two trials for two-year-old’s in Hobart as they continue their preparation before the rich two-year-old races and there wasn’t much between them on times. The Rodney Ashwood trained and driven filly Spoilt Sport was able to find the lead in her trial before handing up to take a trail on the back of Resurgent Storm. At the business end there was a head between them in favour of Spoilt Sport in a mile rate of 2:00.4.
Enterprising Milly trialed up to her good debut races start winning her trial by a head in 2:00.5 and was driven in the trial by Ricky Duggan.
Other trial winners included; Don’t Pass Im Fast (2:04.4), Gipsy Treasure (2:05.5), Roll West (2:06.4), Origin Tara (2:10.9) and Bayridge Bill (2:05.3)
Devonport on Monday
The Rod Burgess trained Claire MacDonald driven Jaminas Joy recorded the quickest mile rate over the seven trials of 2:06.2. The Major In Art mare faced the breeze in the 2297-metre trial and was to good for her rivals winning by half a metre over Franco Hammond.
The other six trials were won by; Resolute Ruler (2:11.2), Maybe Jack (2:06.3), Bettabrown Tiger (2:10.0), Lynniemach (2:07.2), Regal Ashes (2:11.6), Jukebox Music (2:07.4)
Week Ahead
The Group 3 Maxfield Drilling Raider Stakes Final and the Group 3 Collins Homes Granny Smith Final headline a terrific card of racing at Devonport on Friday.
There are no certainties in racing but it does look like the Raider Stakes will be a formality for the Todd Rattray trained and driven pacer Harjeet.
The Easter Cup winner in six classes above his nearest rival and has drawn barrier one for Friday’s assignment. Harjeet has won 11-races from his 15-career starts ironically the same win to start ratio at the same stage as Beautide. Victory on Friday will be the eighth win in a row for Harjeet – something that Beautide never achieved.
The early fixed odds market sees; $1.04 Harjeet, $10 Usain Jolt, $12 Buster William with the remaining runners at $26 or better.
The Granny Smith is a more competitive affair with the prelude winner Resurgent Dream holding favouritism in early markets over El Jays Mystery who finished second in the prelude.
Early market; $2.40 Resurgent Dream, $3.30 El Jays Mystery, $4.40 Kaliska Leis and 6.50 Volkova Leis who rounds out those under the $10 quote.
The Devonport card will feature a hosted live stream coverage on tasracing.com.au commencing at 16:00.
The Tasmanian Pacing Club will stage eight races on Sunday evening where Smart filly Enterprising Milly will be looking to make it two from two when she lines up in the $10,000 Elderslie Horse Care 2YO Sweepstakes Prelude for Fillies, while Sunny Sanz will look to add to his winning tally in the Colts and Geldings Prelude.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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