Tontine Trotters Final-winning driver Noel Shinn
They have been in the spotlight this week as hosts of Lombo Pocket Watch, but Ruth and Noel Shinn got to celebrate a feature win of their own on Thursday night when Armed Guard destroyed his rivals in the PETstock Tontine Trotters Final at Terang.
The four-year-old son of Monarchy, driven by Noel and trained by Ruth at the Wallan property where “The Grey Bullet” is preparing for his shot at a third-straight Vicbred final, made a one-act affair of the western district feature at the Hamilton Harness Racing Club fixture.
Despite starting off 10 metres in the 2680-metre handicap, the gelding was still able to stroll home by an ever-widening 17 metres.
In a remarkable display, it wasn’t until the final 300 metres that the $3.10 favourite put his stamp on the race.
That was the point when Shinn started a move around the field after travelling patiently in the running line and within the space of 100 metres he had put the result beyond doubt.
Armed Guard speared to the front shortly after straightening and although eased up by Shinn in the concluding stages, the final quarter was still covered in 29.9 seconds for a mile rate of 2:07.4.
Leading home the chasing division was the outsider of the field, $73 pop Sharendoo Lass, with Broadacrossthebeam ($24) two-and-a-half metres away in third spot.
Rounding out a big night of Tontine action was the $30,000 Pacers Final, which saw Kate Gath outsmart her rivals aboard the Peter Thompson-trained Jubilee Ball in the time-honoured Group 3 feature.
After pouncing on the lead from barrier five, Gath was able to dictate terms in the 2180m event and when she got away with a 32.2-second first quarter after a 43.3-second lead time, Jubilee Ball’s rivals were always going to struggle to run him down.
Gath increased the tempo with 30 and 29.1-second middle splits, but the son of Presidential Ball’s ability to cover the last section in 28.5 seconds carried the $6.60 chance to victory by almost four metres in a 2:00.4 mile rate.
Second over the line was Benucci ($18), who raced outside the leader throughout, with $1.90 favourite No More Secrets holding third after racing on the Jubilee Ball’s back.
