It was once again an action-packed week on the Tasmanian harness racing scene.
A large crowd descended on Carrick Park Saturday afternoon to watch Sunny Sanz take out the Carrick Inn Hotel Carrick Park Pacing Cup before a successful Tasmanian Harness Racing Yearling Sale.
There was plenty of highlights and milestone wins at the Tasmanian Trotting Club’s meeting on Sunday, where once again Ryley Major won the feature race of the card in the Triple M Hobart Metropolitan Cup.
This week the $12,000 Tasmanian Trotting Club Elite Free For All is the feature event on the card in Hobart on Friday night before we head to Burnie on Sunday for the running of the $12,000 7BU Burnie Cup.
Also, this weekend we see last season’s Tasmanian Horse Of The Year Max Delight contest the $200,000 Chariots Of Fire at Menangle in Sydney. The Mick Maxfield owned pacer is a $5.50 chance in Australian harness racing’s premier four-year-old race.
The Stars
Ryley Major – has won 11 races in a row and is getting closer to the most consecutive wins on Tasmanian soil which is 13 held by the great Halwes. His latest victory was in Sunday’s Triple M Hobart Metropolitan Cup where he once again proved too good as the $1.05 favourite.
The Shallows – is another continuing his picket fence when he won his eighth race in a row in the Tasmanian Equine Veterinary Services Pace on Sunday. From outside the second row, the Heath Woods-trained and driven pacer settled well back and looked to be in trouble at the 600-metre mark but he was good enough to overcome that obstacle to score well.
Sunny Sanz – led for the majority of the way to score in the Carrick Inn Hotel Carrick Park Pacing Cup on Saturday. The mile rate of 2m 2.5s took half a second off the previous track record. The Kent Rattray trained four-year-old has now won nine of his ten starts with the Easter Cup and Raider Stakes his main targets this season.
Rohan Hillier – notched up his 700th win in the sulky in Hobart when he won the final race on the card with the Marc Butler trained A Spanish Dance. Hillier started his driving career on 22 April 1989.
Troy McDonald – was another driver to record a milestone win on Sunday when Good Feelings scored in the Roberts Sprint Lane Pace to give the former Victorian his 100th driving win. In harness racing, dead heats count as a win for premiership purposes however a dead heat does not count as a win for the concession driver claiming point system.
Multiple Winners
Carrick Park – Saturday afternoon
Todd Rattray – driving double; Kadar and Class Tells.
Hobart – Sunday evening
Ben Yole – training treble; The Neptune Kid, Good Feelings, Southern Gnp,
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Carrick Park – Saturday afternoon
Unavailable.
Hobart – Sunday evening
Ryley Major 56.42s, Call Me Hector 58.64s, Koolaz Elvis 56.97s, The Shallows 57.27s and Blackbird Power 57.56s.
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Carrick Park – Saturday afternoon
Unavailable due to non-tab status.
Hobart – Sunday evening
Hit’s: Good Feelings $26.00 into $19.00 and Southern Gnp $26.00 into $21.00.
Defied The Drift: The Neptune Kid $7.00 out to $7.50, Soho Senna $4.40 out to $4.80, The Thug $5.00 out to $7.00 and A Spanish Dance $1.35 out to $2.10.
Missed: Ashleys Angel $3.70 into $3.50, Peaceful Thomas $2.40 into $2.20, Gentleman Red $16.00 into $9.00, Pushkin $17.00 into $10.00, Quick Changeover $14.00 into $9.00 and Weerrook Harry $21.00 into $16.00.
Trial File
Hobart – Monday evening
Five trials were staged on Monday where surprisingly it was the two-year-old’s recording the quickest winning mile rate of 2m 6.7s.
It was the Juanita McKenzie-trained Iden Black Prince driven by Ricky Duggan leading all the way to defeat stablemate Iden Reactor by three metres in the five-horse field.
Iden Black Prince is a gelded son of Stonebridge Regal and is out of Iden Countess which makes him a half-brother to Iden Noshot (9 wins) and Iden Amrak (8 wins).
Other trials were won by; Beau Garcon (2m 9.0s), Shesa Tricky Bridge (2m 14.8s), Nikks Pick (2m 7.4s) and Betterbsweet (2m 7.1s).
Carrick Park – Monday evening
It was the Rattray show on Monday night with a member of the family driving all five winners.
Three of those were trained and driven by Todd Rattray including Karpenkova Leis who recorded a mile rate of 2m 3.7s, the mare scored a five-metre win over My Celebrity and Volkova Leis in the rating 50 to 64 event.
Remaining trials were won by; Hafter (2m 8.9s), Colby Sanz (2m 8.0s), Tiger Terror (2m 10.0s) and Lancelot (2m 10.9s).
Week Ahead
Friday night in Hobart we see a seven-event card where the $12,000 Tasmanian Trotting Club Elite Free For All is the feature race of the night, and there is no Ryley Major in the mobile start race.
Call Me Hector who ran a brave second last time out in the Metropolitan Cup has drawn inside of the second row in the 2090 metre event.
Star Chamber is another in the race who has been chasing home Ryley Major at his past two outings draws wide on the front line, while Shesa Tricky Bridge is the interesting runner of the field.
The Stonebridge Regal mare won a claiming race at Warragul last start and joins the Adrian Duggan stable.
The Hobart card is a Sky 2 meeting and commences at 17:56.
Sunday afternoon we see the running of the $12,000 7BU Burnie Cup.
Devonport and New Norfolk Cup runner up Goggo Gee Gee will be hoping it’s third time lucky when he lines up from barrier four in the 2789 metre event.
The main chances appear to be inside him including Boss Major, a Scottsdale winner two starts ago, and Hafter who started a $2.80 favourite in the race last year where he finished well down the track after leading.
The action at the Wivenhoe Showgrounds start at 15:38.
The first four races will be shown on Sky Racing 2 with the last four races on Sky Racing 1.
TasracingTV will show races one to four and race eight live, with races five, six and seven shown as a recording around thoroughbred commitments from Launceston.
Some horses with a Tasmanian connection this weekend include;
Menangle – Saturday night
Race 6 (Group 1 Chariots Of Fire) Horse 2 Max Delight.
