Five-year-old Art Major gelding Iron Clad ($3.30) returned to the winners’ list to claim the $14,000 Rodney Burgess Patrons Marathon (2698m) in Launceston on Sunday night.
With no runners starting from the front-mark, the pacer stepped cleanly from the 10m line to lead, with his chances benefited in the early stages after the $1.55 favourite Ultimaction, who initially paced away, galloped soon after the start.
Driver Mark Yole allowed the Wayne Yole-trained pacer to bowl along in the lead and held off a challenge by stablemate Vanquish Stride ($17) over the concluding stages, with two metres between the pair at the finish. Neon ($19) was 15m away third in a mile rate of 2:00.3s.
Iron Clad had been out of the winners circle since winning a heat of the Tassie Golden Apple in late November, and has raced at a high level since, including several country cups.
“He stepped really well and found the front, and with the favourite galloping early, I decided to let him stride and kept him on the bit,” said Mark.
“He has been there around the mark in higher grade, he has been racing in country cups and not having much luck, and he dropped back tonight from some of those bigger cups.
“I think they had upped his work a little bit, as he felt like there was a little bit more than what he was giving us,” the driver added.
The win completed a driving double for Mark, who won earlier in the night with Angelshavtime ($10).
“I thought she was a big drop in class, she ran third behind a horse I respect in Glenview Lanikai a couple of starts ago, and last start she wanted to run the gate, and I let her go with it but she may have burnt a bit too hard early, so tonight we slotted in and I let her work into it from the 600m and she was too good.”
Angelshavetime is also trained by Wayne Yole, who had a good night, also preparing Mr Bondi ($6.50) and Montgomery Burns ($7.50), who were both driven by Liam Older, who ended the night with a driving treble, with the Michael Laugher-trained Just Lika Dream ($11) being his other winner.
One of the night’s other feature races was the North West Tasmanian Light Harness Association Mares Incentive, which was won by $1.35 favourite Keayang Galliano for the Jordan Chibnall and Conor Crook combination.
