It was an action-packed week of Tasmanian harness racing over the past seven days, headlined by the Triple M Hobart Pacing Cup which was taken out by Ryley Major.
It was a night of short price favourites and long price winners in Launceston on Sunday, none longer than It Is A Glacier who started at $101.00 on the Tasracing Official Price.
This weekend we have the Carrick Inn Carrick Park Pacing Cup and yearling sale at Carrick Park on Saturday before we head to Hobart on Sunday where Ryley Major and Illegal Immigrant clash in the Metropolitan Cup.
The Stars
Ryley Major – notched up his tenth win in a row with an effortless victory in the Group 3 Triple M Hobart Pacing Cup on Friday night. The Rohan Hillier-trained and driven pacer will contest this Sunday’s Triple M Metropolitan Cup ahead of tackling the $75,000 Tasmania Pacing Cup on 14 March with the gelded son of Art Major to contest a heat of the race either on 1 or 8 March.
Georgia Hayward – 17-year-old Scottsdale based driver registered her first win in the sulky in the $12,000 Launceston Discretionary aboard $101.00 chance It Is A Glacier, who from outside the front row raced behind the leader before getting out in plenty of time to score in an action-packed race.
Conor Crook – landed a double on the Launceston card including the $12,000 Harry Holgate Memorial with Lip Reader who is now three from three since arriving in the state from New South Wales.
Kate MacLeod – prepared three-year-old filly Machbev to win on debut in the Carlton Draught Stakes, the filly was driven by Rohan Hillier.
Mentions to Chris Aylett to get War Dan Star back into the winners list, The Shallows who just keeps winning, Agouda Ruler who continues the great run of north-west coast trained two-year-old’s this season, Kohanah who strolled around at a short quote against his own age, Betterthanfetta who bounced back into the winners list and Taylor Ford and Ben Woodsford for their perseverance with Ashleys Angel.
Multiple Winners
Hobart – Friday evening
No participant recorded multiple wins on the program.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Conor Crook – driving double; Guys Bettor Bet, Lip Reader,
Gareth Rattray – driving double; War Dan Star and Agouda Ruler,
Ben Yole – training double; Guys Bettor Bet and The Neptune Kid,
Rohan Hillier – double; trained Lip Reader and drove Mach Bev.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Hobart – Friday evening
Call Me Hector 56.65s, Ryley Major 56.80s, Star Chamber 56.84s, No Spring Secrets 56.90s and Somedan 56.93s.
Launceston – Sunday evening
The Shallows 56.50s, Artiflash 56.57s, Ready To Fire 56.74s, Pink Ponder 56.91s and Bremisa 57.07s,
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Hobart – Friday evening
Hit’s: Kohanah $1.45 into $1.30, Ryley Major $1.16 into $1.07 and Distinctive Del $9.00 into $3.70.
Defied The Drift: Betterthanfetta $7.50 out to $8.50 and Ashleys Angel $3.80 out to $4.20.
Missed: Raffaello $8.00 into $6.50, Perfect Mach $13.00 into $8.50 and Bootleg Bert $3.50 into $3.30.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Hits: War Dan Star $7.00 into $6.00, The Shallows $1.45 into $1.35, Lip Reader $2.50 into $2.30, The Neptune Kid $26.00 into $10.00 and Agouda Ruler $2.30 into $2.15.
Defied the Drift: Guys Bettor Bet $12.00 out to $18.00, It Is A Glacier $91.00 out to $101.00, Princely Reign $3.40 out to $4.40 and Machbev $2.90 out to $4.60.
Missed: Chris Be Quick $16.00 into $6.50, Karpenkova Leis $8.00 into $6.50, Beachboy Butch $4.40 into $3.40, Sweet Luck $26.00 into $12.00, Coveffe Hustler $12.00 into $8.50, and llawong Achilles $7.50 into $5.00.
Trial File
Carrick Park – Monday evening
Seven-year-old gelding Spot Eight recorded the quickest winning mile rates of the Carrick Park session on Monday night when he scored in a mile rate of 2m 5.6s when winning a rating 47 to 55 trial over 2150 metres.
Tim Yole drove the gelding to a six-metre win over stablemates My Ultimate Romeo and Yellow Taxi, with the final two quarters recorded in 29.4s and 30.0s.
Other trials were won by; Brookwillrock (2m 9.9s), Shadow Ross (2m 9.3s), Karalta Courage (2m 8.4s) and Micton Aroha (2m 6.0s).
Week Ahead
Saturday harness racing returns to Carrick Park for the running of the $12,000 Carrick Inn Hotel Carrick Park Pacing Cup.
The race has attracted a strong field including Meander Valley Cup winner Sunny Sanz who starts off the front row in the 2650 metre event, Smart Little Shard who finished fourth in the Devonport and Hobart Pacing Cup’s, New Norfolk Cup winner Finn Mac Kee and Devonport Pacing Cup placegetter Full Speed Ahead just some of the chances in an open race.
There is a 1 hour and 25-minute gap between the final two races for the Tasmanian Harness Racing Yearling Sale with more details available on the Tasracing corporate website.
There is no off-track betting available on the meeting which will be broadcast on City Park Radio on 103.7fm and 96.5fm in Launceston and surrounding areas, the station also broadcast live online at cityparkradio.com.
There will be no broadcast on RadioTAB, Sky Racing or TasracingTV.
Sunday night the Tasmanian Trotting Club stages an eight-race card that commences at the later time of 18:27.
The feature race is the Triple M Hobart Metropolitan Cup.
Ryley Major starts from barrier six in the 2579 metre event where his main danger is Devonport Cup winner Illegal Immigrant.
The $12,000 event is race six on the card scheduled to start at 21:02.
Some horses with a Tasmanian connection this weekend include;
Melton – Friday night
Race 1 Horse 11 Blingittothemax.
Menangle – Saturday night
Race 4 Horse 5 Zhukov Leis,
Race 5 Horse 7 Ignatius,
Wedderburn – Sunday afternoon
Race 5 (Central Victorian Pacing Championship) Horse 2 Still Hungover.
