Former New South Wales pacer Mayor Of Elwood opened his winning account in Tasmania when scoring in the Book Your Christmas Function With Us For 1 December Pace (2200m) in Launceston on Sunday night.
The four-year-old Modern Art gelding was having his third start since joining the Todd Rattray stable, with the pacer starting his career in Victoria with Jess Tubbs before doing his recent racing in New South Wales with Todd’s brother James.
From barrier four, the gelding worked forward to find the lead, leaving the home straight, and was able to control the race from that point.
Todd held the $2.20 favourite back to the field before shaking him up in the home straight to prove too good late for Major Lester ($34) and Fleetwood Rock ($126) in a mile rate of 1:58.4s.
“He had been going okay, and being able to get in front was very handy. James told me he hasn’t been beaten in front,” Todd said about the win.
“I was trying to hold him up a bit (turning for home), I didn’t want the one on my back to dash over the top of me, but he responded when I wanted him to.
“He will likely go through his grades here and then head back up (to James). He has good gate speed if we want to use it, which will be handy going forward. We will just see how he goes in his next few starts. He will give me a guide on where we go,” explained Todd.
Driving honours at the meeting went to Todd’s brother Gareth, who drove a double on the seven-race card.
He led all the way on the Michael Laugher-trained Talk Is Cheap ($6.50) before winning later in the night on the Kent Rattray-trained Miki Sanz ($4.60).
Meanwhile, the Tasracing Calculated sectionals for both weekend meetings are now up in the race results on tasracing.com.au.
A new record was set in the Tasmanian Derby, with the second placegetter Collective Works last half-mile being recorded in 53.89s, the fastest last-half mile recorded since the Calculated sectionals have been recorded from 1 January 2016.
It’s a quick time in anyone’s language, in particular coming at the end of an equal track-record time over 2579m.
