06 April 2018 | Shane Yates
A bumper ten-event Devonport card kicks off a super weekend of harness racing culminating in the Sky Racing Tasmanian Derby meeting on Hobart on Sunday.
John Castles and Rohan Hadley will look to take full advantage from the inside front-line draw in the opening race on the programme with Sophias Angel.
The mare scored a well-deserved victory in Hobart at her most recent outing but will face stiff opposition from the Todd Rattray-trained Betterthanlife drawn alongside in two and the last start John Nicholson-trained winner Additallup drawn the outside of the front.
A point for punters to note is that five of the pole-markers are favourites tonight including Thirlstane King in race two.
While the Geoff Madden trained and driven six-year-old’s recent form is nothing to write home about with nine unplaced runs this season, he has won nine races in his career and if Geoff can hold the lead on the Modern Art-Shansue Mod entire he has a strong chance of bouncing back to winning form.
The trend continues in the third with Albayzin, a recent Launceston winner coming up with the number one saddlecloth.
The Rodney Ashwood trained and driven four-year-old gelding has been beaten by big margins in races won by Im Compliant and Mister Magic Man since the victory but can return to the winner’s list if he can muster enough speed into the first turn.
Rodney is in great form steering home a winning double on Saturday night’s Easter Cup programme with The Aussie and Williamtell.
The Brooke Hammond prepared Vinnie Toretto (pictured) is the early favourite for race five after drawing the inside and has the extra bonus of carting Gareth Rattray around over the 2297-metre journey.
Don’t Pass Im Fast will follow Vinnie Toretto through from the second line and in-form reinsman Dylan Ford will need to weave some magic to position the five-year-old mare in a spot to challenge the likely leader.
Gareth Rattray has a chance to salute with another pole-marker in Jilliby Gigi lining up in race six over the sprint trip of 1930-metres.
The five-year-old mare has run six placing from ten starts this season without breaking through for a victory but did run a solid third to Jakes A Joy in torrential rain in Launceston a fortnight ago which suggests a win is not too far away.
Tonight’s action-packed card commences at 17.15 and may be viewed on the live stream service at tasracing.com.au.
Watch the John Castles-trained Sophias Angel salute for Rohan Hadley in the MMM Pace in Hobart on March 23:
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