Troy McDonald drove his first winner in Tasmania on the opening night of the Burnie Harness Racing Club season on Friday.
McDonald, a Victorian fly-in, steered the well supported Ben Yole-trained Washies Chance ($4.20) to victory in the last race of the night, the Claimer.
McDonald’s interest in harness racing was sparked early in life by his father’s involvement as an owner, but he had never ever driven a horse until eighteen months prior to his maiden win as a 21-year-old junior reinsman at Kilmore in March of 2015.
For trainer Ben Yole it was the second leg of a winning race to race double after his four-year-old mare Carlas Heaven, driven by Rohan Hillier, was backed into $2.70 favouritism and duly saluted by half-a-metre.
Trainer Brooke Hammond also celebrated a winning double with Hot Shot Bonnie ($4) and a recent addition to the stable Parwill ($3.20).
Both winners were driven by Gareth Rattray and recorded convincing victories, five-year-old mare Hot Shot Bonnie won by 4.5-metres with a smart 2:04.5 mile-rate while Parwill came off a 20-metre handicap to score by 5.5-metres, returning a mile rate of 2:07.
The Craig Hayes trained and driven four-year-old gelding Herbie Haze set punters on the right path in the opener scoring in effortless fashion on its home track by ten-metres.
Mersey Delight, for Kimberley trainer David Hayes, finished strongly to clinch the fourth victory of its 30-start career after a textbook drive by Paul Ashwood.
The six-year-old mare came off the ten-metre handicap to lob in the one out one back position before flashing home to score impressively.
Laughyaheadoff showed she is on target for a tilt at the St. Mary’s Cup after taking out the Gowans Motor Group Pace.
The six-year-old mare, trained and driven by Allister Woods, had been off the scene for four months and returned to the winner’s list for the first time since scoring at Burnie on February 3.
