After being out of the industry for some time, Westbury trainer Ron Eeles was back in the winners circle in Burnie last night when Kikkimi scored in the feature race of the night, the Cables Plus (TAS) Liza Storm.
Eeles has only had four starters since his return to the training ranks since March this year.
Kikkimi was only having her fourth race start, her first was with the Todd Rattray stable when third back in January 2019 and wasn’t seen till 1 November when finishing sixth in a heat of the Bandbox before finishing ninth in the final.
Last night from the pole draw, driver Hannah Van Dongen was able to hold the lead in the very short run to the first corner and was able to dictate affairs to score by 5.5 metres off Aussie Rock and Kabibi in a mile rate 2m 6.3s for the 2180 metre trip.
Kikkimi is by Roll With Joe and is out of Delmi, who is out of Gorse Bush which makes Delmi a half-sister to Beautide.
It was a big night for the states leading trainer Ben Yole who trained four winners on the card including The Lemondrop Kid, Amazing Daisy, Jakes A Joy and Itsadanceoff.
The Lemondrop Kid provided reinsman Mark Yole with his 550th career win in the opening race of the night, and ironically, the pacer gave Mark his 500th career win in the last race at the last meeting held at the Wivenhoe Showgrounds.
Mark also had success on the card as a trainer with recent stable addition Tisu Spirit who lead in a rating 60 or better standing start event after starting off the front mark courtesy of the three-point concession claim for Conor Crook.
Reinsman Wade Rattray ended a run of outs when coming with a well-judged drive to score in the last race on Rockandahardplace, who is trained by his father Kent.
The pacer was involved in a spectacular fall in Launceston earlier this year along with Major Davvin who also contested the race.
Harness racing heads to Hobart on Sunday where the state drivers premiership battle continues with Gareth Rattray, Rohan Hillier and Conor Crook who all sharing the lead with 65 wins, closely followed by Ricky Duggan 61, Mark Yole 58 and Troy McDonald 57.
