The Australian harness racing 2018/19 season officially comes to an end on Saturday night, however, Tasmania's final meeting of the season was conducted in Launceston on Sunday with a program full of highlights.
The national spotlight was on the big Breeders Crown meeting at Melton on Saturday night where East Devonport owner Mick Maxfield found the winners circle with Max Delight in the Three Year Old Breeders Crown Final.
Max Delight, a gelded son of Bettors Delight led all the way to score in a 1m 55.9s mile rate.
The feature victory saw Max Delight take his prize money earnings to $323,970, further enhancing his season's resume that already boasted success in the Group 1 New South Wales Derby, the Group 3 Tasmanian Derby and a fifth placing in the Group 1 Victoria Derby.
The Stars
Illegal Immigrant - continued on his winning way when he took out the Lees Orchard Pace on Sunday. Trainer-driver Troy Hillier positioned the gelding one-out and two-back before sprinting over the top of his rivals late to score by 1.4-metres, his calculated last half mile recorded in 55.96s the quickest of the meeting. It has been reported that Illegal Immigrant may have his next start in The Gammalite at Melton on 7 September.
Sunny Sanz - took the step up to the National Rating 65 to 79 class with ease, the gelded son of Sportswriter pinged straight to the lead in the standing start event and proved too strong for his rivals in a slick 56.6s last half mile. The mile rate of 2m 0.1s was just 1.7s outside the track record.
Rohan Hillier - continued his terrific run with former New Zealand three-year-olds. Awayandrideyourself took on the older horses for the first time and he handled the step up in grade well, courtesy of a copybook drive by Conor Crook, while later on the card stablemate Prosecution Witness led all the way for the to win at a short quote.
Andrew Thornton - was back in the winners stall for the first time in a while when Shes Gifted pulled off a plunge from $51 into $26 on the Tasracing Official Price. Thornton drove for luck on the daughter of For A Reason to record her second win at her 82nd race track appearance. The mile rate for the 1680-metre trip was 1m 57.5s which is a quick run for the National Rating 45 to 49 grade.
Ben Yole - capped off the season with a weekend treble including $41 long shot Ashleys Angel in Launceston. Yole ended the season with a record breaking Tasmanian tally of 181 wins and 408 placings from 2,660 starters, which is believed to be an Australian record.
Multiple Winners
Hobart – Friday evening
Ben Yole - training double; Mystery Writer and Artiflash.
Marc Butler - training double; Couta Rocks and Malalla.
Ricky Duggan - driving double; Couta Rocks and Malalla.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Gareth Rattray - driving double; Elect To Go and One Yankee Ginga.
Rohan Hillier - training double; Awayandrideyourself and Prosecution Witness.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Hobart – Friday evening
Yellow Taxi 57.44s, Seenohearnospeakno 57.66s, Origin Tara 57.87s, Adelaide Bay 57.88s and Bounty Eyre 57.90s.
Launceston – Friday evening
Illegal Immigrant 55.96s, Sunny Sanz 56.60, Goggo Gee Gee 56.67s Stylish Trend 56.69s and Reign Of Pain 56.73s.
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Hobart – Friday evening
Hit’s: Artiflash $3.60 into $3.10 and Couta Rocks $10 into $9.00.
Defied The Drift: The New Man $8.50 out to $10, Jocund $2.50 out to $3.20, Malalla $7.50 out to $8.50 and Northview Dave $1.85 out to $2.00.
Missed: Seenohearnospeakno $4.40 into $3.90, Castor Troy $31 into $16, Lake Eyre $12 into $9.50, Raymonds Judge $3.20 into $2.30, Van Der Poel $10 into $4.00 and Swap Me $26 into $9.00.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Hit’s: Shes Gifted $51 into $26, Prosecution Witness $1.20 into $1.14 and One Yankee Ginga $2.60 into $2.25.
Defied The Drift: Elect To Go $4.20 out to $4.80, Ashleys Angel $26 out to $41 and Illegal Immigrant $2.40 out to $3.70.
Missed: Blackjackhanover $18 into $7.50, Princely Reign $7.50 into $4.60, Jigamaroo $8.00 into $6.50 and Trumps Golden Boy $3.00 into $2.40.
Trial File
Hobart - Monday evening
If you took the short odds on offer for Iden Forest in Launceston on Sunday night, then you will be disappointed to know he led all the way to win a Hobart trial on Monday night, dashing home in a 27.9s final quarter in the process.
The Chris Howlett trained pacer was stood down 14 days and two trials in Launceston on Sunday for causing a false start.
Iden Forest led all the way to win his 50 - 65 rated trial in a mile rate of 2m 2.9s and was able to defeat Albayzin by five metres with Brystabella a further eight metres away.
Remaining trials were won by Finn Mac Kee 2m 5.1s and Nobeer Nomore 2m 9.0s.
Devonport - Monday evening
Two trials were staged on Monday evening where the Ben Yole trained Wheresmilzee recorded the quickest winning mile rate of 2m 4.9s when he scored in a trial for horses of a national rating if 40 to 55.
The trial was conducted over 1930 metres and Wheresmilzee was taken to the lead by driver Troy McDonald, the unraced three-year-old scored by five metres over Crackerjacks Judge with Arapaho a half metre away third in a mile rate of 2m 4.9s.
The remaining trial was a national rating 40 to 65 event over 2297 metres which was won by Guys Bettor Bet, scoring a two metre victory over Lord Stark and My Girl Pearl in a mile rate of 2m 9.2s.
Week Ahead
The opening meeting of the new season will be staged on Wednesday night 4 September in Hobart.
Wednesday night Harness racing has been proven popular with punters with favourable turnover figures for Tasmanian harness racing in the past, with the opportunity to reschedule the calendar made possible due to Redcliffe being closed due to major track renovations.
The month will also see racing on Wednesday evenings, 11 September Launceston, 18 September in Hobart and 25 September in Launceston with the only Sunday meeting being in Hobart on 29 September.
All meetings will have Sky Racing 1 and Sky Racing Active coverage while all Wednesday night meetings will have a hosted live stream service on TasracingTV.
Nominations for the meeting in Hobart on Wednesday 4 September close at noon on Thursday 29 August, with the fields available on Friday morning.
It is expected that the first race will be around 17:27.
Interstate this week at metropolitan venues some of our Tasmanian representatives include;
Melton - Saturday night
Race 2 Horse 1 Coveffe Hustler - trained by Ben Yole,
Race 8 Horse 4 Ready To Fire - trained by Ben Yole,
Race 9 Horse 1 My Ultimate Fella, 4 Nonno Stride, 8 Perfect Mach and 9 Heza The One all trained by Ben Yole.
Menangle - Saturday night
Race 5 Horse 7 Kadar - Tasmanian owned,
Race 10 Horse 9 Scooterwillrev - Tasmanian owned.
Albion Park - Saturday night
Race 5 Horse 7 Ideal Bliss - Tasmanian owned and bred.
