Triedtotellya winning the 2026 Hobart Cup
AN unfashionably bred gelding who has broken down three times has united the hopes of a once proud Australian harness racing state.
The tiny state of Tasmania, an island off the south-west of mainland Australia, punched above its weight for so long in Down Under harness racing.
Triedtotellya, a six-year-old son of Well Said out of Presidential Ball mare Ballroom Belle, has become a beacon of hope.
Back in the late 1960s, the mighty Halwes really put Tassie on the harness racing map through trips to mainland Australia and New Zealand for major races and most famously won the 1968 Miracle Mile, becoming the first Australian-bred pacer to break a two-minute mile in the process.
The 1980s and 90s saw a string of Tasmanian-bred and/or trained pacers make serious splashes in the biggest mainland races. Superstars like Thorate, Sinbad Bay, Jane Ellen, Halyer and Almeta Boy all spring to mind.
Thorate, who won an Inter Dominion for Hall of Fame trainer Brian Hancock, won 70 races and was the 1990s Australian Horse of the Year.
Sinbad Bay could’ve been the best of the lot. He won 23 races and two Victoria Cups, but injuries cut him down in his prime. Champion driver Brian Gath says he’s the most talented pacer he has driven in Australia.
Halyer won 32 races and would have won the 1994 Inter Dominion with any luck, while champion Jane Ellen won 30 wins from just 50 starts and the headstrong, erratic but gifted Almeta Boy won 27 races and ran a monstrous second to Westburn Grant in the 1990 Miracle Mile.
Those were the glory days for Tassie.
It wasn’t until Beautide appeared from relative obscurity to win the 2014 and ’15 Sydney Inter Dominion finals when Tassie really made its mark again.
Most thought Beautide was an outlier and he would be the last time Tasmania produced a horse good enough to win a really big race on the mainland again.
They were right, but maybe only until now.
Many hope and some believe Triedtotellya could be the horse to defy that.
The signs are great so far with his 23 starts netting 17 wins, three seconds, a third and almost $A230,000 in prize money.
But he’s yet to race on the mainland.
And fans on both sides of the Bass Strait, which separates Tassie from the mainland, will have to wait a bit longer for that.
Triedtotellya has two more major targets at home before connections, the Howlett clan and trainer-driver Rohan Hillier, plot their first trip away.
It’s likely to be for the biggest of big dances, the $A1 million Brisbane Inter Dominion series in July.
There’s a touch of venom in Hillier’s voice when he mentions the Inter Dominion.
“We actually nominated him for it last year, but the handicappers obviously didn’t rate him and he was too far down the rankings to think we’d even get a run in the heats,” he said.
“I don’t think he’ll have that problem this time.”
No he won’t because he’s won nine of his past 10 starts and run second in the other.
As exciting as Triedtotellya has looked, it was his most recent win which really made people take notice.
He met million-dollar earner Mach Dan, from the premier mainland stable of Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin, in the $A40,000 Hobart Cup on January 11.
Granted Mach Dan is in the twilight of his career, but they smashed the clock and Triedtotellya cruised past him. The blistering 1min55.9sec mile rate for 2579m took 1.7sec off the track record.
“He’s up and on his way now,” Hillier said.
Those next two targets are the $A40,000 Devonport Cup on January 31 and Tasmania’s only Group 1 race of any equine code, the $A150,000 Tasmania Cup on February 28.
“We’d actually love to have taken him over to Victoria for one of those big Cups they’ve got on in the next month or so, but it doesn’t make sense to leave home with those two races here just around the corner,” part-owner and former trainer Braden Howlett said.
Howlett and his family go back to 2014 with the Triedtotellya story when they went to the Melbourne Yearling Sales with one target.
They were outbid for a Santanna Blue Chip colt out of Ballroom Belle. He raced on to be Tulhurst Santanna and won 43 races and almost $A470,000.
Rather than go home empty-handed, the Howletts bought the mare Ballroom Belle, who was in foal to Shadow Play.
She tested their patience.
“We were lucky in the end, but the first two foals out of the mare didn’t make it to the races,” Eliza Howlett said.
In between, Ballroom Belle also missed getting in foal twice.
Finally, four years after they bought her, she produced Triedtotellya.
The ability was there from day one, even if the manners and ringcraft were not.
Triedtotellya was trained by Braden Howlett then and raced at two. He won three races (from seven starts), including the Dandy Patch final.
“We couldn’t wait to get him back at three, but just when he was about to resume, he did a tendon,” Howlett said.
Triedtotellya missed his entire three-year-old season. He didn’t race for 14 months.
Then, when he did return, he raced once for a win at Elwick and did the same tendon again.
When he came back and did it for a third time, the Howett’s decided he literally needed a sea-change to try and salvage his career.
“I’m probably better set-up for it. I train near the beach and I’ve got a pool to swim them in, too,” Hillier said.
“So far so good. Last campaign it was always in the back of my mind the issue could flare again, but this time-in he hasn’t been lame and isn’t showing any signs of a problem.”
He joined Hillier in late 2024 and Triedtotellya has only been beaten once in 10 starts since.
“Different gravy, that’s what he is,” he said. “He’s easily the best and most talented horse I’ve had anything to do with.
“The speed he’s got is incredible, but he’s got depth, too. He’s a good stayer with a terrific heart rate.
“I’m sure he’ll be competitive with the good horses, it’s just a matter of whether he can take that next step and we won’t know until we try.”
All of Tasmania will be hoping he does.
PHOTO: Eliza Howlett
