All For Dave has never raced on Tasmania’s north-west coast, but he added the Go Racing Tasmania Ulverstone Cup (2698m) to his resume in Launceston on Sunday night to go along with his win in last year’s Sheffield Cup. The two towns are located in the states north-west.
From the outside of the front row in the 2698m standing start event, driver Mark Yole got the five-year-old gelding away quickly to lead and bowled along in front in an 86.6s lead time, before running quarters of 30.8s, 31.1s, 29.4s and 28.3s to score by a head over Miss Papenhuyzen who made up a lot of ground after galloping, while $2.05 favourite Blitzern, who did plenty of work in the run, finished a further three metres away third in a mile rate of 2:03.0s.
Stewards reviewed the start for some time before declaring all clear.
Trainer Kelly Reggett was delighted with the win of the pacer, who had been runner-up in four of his five starts this season.
“I didn’t expect him to begin from seven like that. I didn’t expect him to lead, and then when Allan (McDonough, driver of Blitzern) got stuck three-wide, the heart started to sink in my mouth a little bit, thinking that he was going to be a chance, and he fought on late, probably the best he has this season, so I’m super proud.
“For Mark Yole to bring up his 800th driving win on this horse is pretty special to us,” said Reggett.
All For Dave has had injuries that have kept him away from the track, resulting in the pacer being lightly raced, with the trainer looking at some feature races for the pacer later in the season.
“He was only a 71 rater going into the race, four points out of his class, and that was only his 14th start. We may give him another race and then look at tipping him out and bringing him back for the Golden Apple, as he will be off the front,” explained the trainer.
Junior driver Brodie Davis has taken the lead in the state Concession Drivers Premiership, nearing the season’s halfway mark, after a winning treble.
Davis was able to lead all the way to win by 11.7m on Nil Desperandum ($1.80 fav), Art Huntsman ($2.70 fav) also led all the way to win by 19.9m and then came from back in the field to win on Jo An Jo ($1.95 fav).
Davis has won 18 races this season, at a strike rate of 20%, and leads Kayleb Williams on the junior driver premiership with 15 winners, with Olivia Weidenbach third with 14 winners for the season.
