Hall of Fame reinsman Ricky Duggan will be chasing his 30th Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes Final win when he heads to Devonport on Sunday.
Duggan has drives in the two four-year-old finals, the Group 2 Maxfield Drilling Raider Stakes for the Entires and Geldings, while the mares will strut their stuff in Collins Homes Granny Smith, also at Group 2 level.
Watchmylips impressed in his heat of the Raider Stakes two weeks ago, where he led throughout to score by 32.9 metres in 1m 59.9s, but the barrier draw hasn’t been too kind this week, which is a concern to Duggan.
“He was good (in his heat), he had it pretty good being able to lead, it’s obviously going to be a different story this week,’ said Duggan, with the gelding drawing barrier four on the second-row in the 2665-metre event.
Duggan went into the heat with a slight reservation of how the pacer would handle the 750-metre Devonport track, but his concern was positively answered.
“He got round there good as gold, a lot better than I thought he would of. He run good time and did it pretty easy,” Duggan said on this weeks Tasmanian Harness Highlights Podcast.
Duggan respects many of his rivals, including Rockandahardplace, who outstayed his rivals to win the other heat of the series.
“Rockandhardplace was a good run in his heat, he stuck at it real good and the 2665m I think that will suit him and he seems to like to bowl along at a good tempo, and he can stick it out, he will take a bit of beating drawn three,” the Hall of Fame driver said.
Duggan takes the reins on Better Amour in the Group 2 Collins Homes Granny Smith, with the Paul Carlson-trained mare enjoying a lovely run to cause an upset win in the prelude two weeks ago.
“Last time out in the prelude, she did everything right and got over the two more fancied runners,” Duggan said.
“It’s going to be a bit of a hard task this week with Blame It On Me drawing one, she is going to take a lot of beating from there. Iden Gorgeous has drawn out the back and will have to get into it at some stage, so hopefully we can lob handy and earn something,” added the driver.
The Devonport card will be televised on TasracingTV, with extended coverage on the Sky Racing Active App.
Races one and two will be shown on Sky Racing 2, with the last eight races on Sky Racing 1, with the coverage also to include an on-track late mail service.
Race one is set down for 17:10.
