Many personal milestones were achieved on Tasmanian harness racing tracks last weekend at the meetings held in Burnie and the TAB Racing Center in Launceston.
This weekend the action kicks off tonight at TAB Park Elwick for a seven-race card before we turn our attention to Carrick Park on Saturday afternoon for the last leg of the Tasmanian Country Cup Carnival for the season.
Once again Ignatius is the talk of the tracks after his slashing win in last week’s Group 2 Paleface Adios at Menangle Park in Sydney. The Gelded son of Roll With Joe will chase Group 1 success at the same venue this weekend when he lines up in the $200,000 Chariots Of Fire.
The Stars
Brooke Hammond – Bart Cummings once said: “Patience is the cheapest thing in racing, but most people don’t use it.” Well, one person who has patience and perseverance is trainer Brooke Hammond who was able to train eight-year-old gelding Sapphire River to his first win at start nine on Friday evening at Burnie. Then on Sunday night in Launceston, she was able to prepare Moonlite Bay to his second career win at start three in the Harry Holgate Memorial. Both winners are out of Cam River who has had eight horses of racing age and all of them have found the winners circle.
Geoff Smith – Continued his brilliant run this year when he prepared a double in Launceston on Sunday. It was Aitutaki overcoming a horrid second row draw to register his second win of the season while Vapar Glenn was also able to record his second win of the season later in the night. Smith now moves into equal seventh on the states trainers premiership for the season.
Rohan Hadley – chalked up his 900th winner in the sulky with a copybook drive aboard the Geoff Smith trained Vapar Glenn on Sunday night.
Gareth Rattray – once again showed his class with driving doubles at both Burnie and Launceston last week. He has now driven 27 winners this season and sits a clear second on the state drivers premiership this season.
Sally Stingel – trained her first career winner with talented three-year-old Rowley in the opening race in Launceston on Sunday.
Hannah Van Dongen and Natalee Emery – both continued to fly the flag for “Team Teal” with brilliant winning drives across the weekend. Which put $400 extra in the kitty for the Woman’s Cancer Foundation.
Multiple Winners
Burnie – Friday evening
Gareth Rattray – driving double; Sapphire River and Mavis Merle.
Mark Yole – driving double; Hez The One and Heza Rummage.
Ben Yole – training double; Hez The One and Heza Rummage.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Gareth Rattray – driving double; El Jays Mystery and Vapar Glenn.
Geoff Smith -training double; Aitutaki and Moonlite Bay.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Burnie – Friday evening
Unavailable
Launceston – Sunday evening
No Apachemee 56.95s, Medal Of Honour 56.98s and The Aussie 57.14s. Outside of race five; Smilin Geoff 57.36s and Jeans Mattjesty 57.52s.
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Burnie – Friday evening
Hit’s: Mister Gentley $3.60 into $3.40, Hez The One $4.00 into $3.50 and Heza Rummage $3.10 into $2.60.
Defied The Drift: Sapphire River $3.60 out to $4.40.
Missed: Mighty Spark $21 into $15, Penstock Boy $31 into $12 and Stylish Trend $4.20 into $3.80.
Launceston – Sunday evening
Hit: Jeans Mattjesty $51 into $21.
Defied The Drift: Aitutaki $13 out to $21, El Jays Mystery $8.50 out to $11, Moonlite Bay $11 out to $18 and Vapar Glenn $7.50 out to $12.
Missed: Full Speed Ahead $8.00 into $5.50, Chasing Cheetahs $9.50 into $5.00, Punchinello $14 into $9.50 and Diamond Grace $14 into $9.00.
Trial File
Carrick Park – Monday evening
Latrobe trainer Melissa Maine and her partner, driver Gareth Rattray combined to win three of the five trials held.
They scored with four-year-old gelding Tisu Spirit who won by 40-metres in a 3CO and better trial over 2150-metres. It was the second trial back this preparation for the last start Launceston winner who recorded a mile rate of 2m 2.9s.
Maine and Rattray then paired up to win a C2 and better trial with Bettabrown Tiger who led all the way to win in a mile rate of 2m 6.3s.
The final win for the Latrobe based duo was with Nancy’s Baby, who is a daughter of Pet Rock. She won the two-year-old trial by two-metres in a mile rate of 2m 14.1s for 1670-metres.
Other winners included; Jaks Teller (2m 7.7s) and Master Paige (2m 5.1s).
Week Ahead
Harness racing in Tasmania this week kicks off tonight in Hobart where the $12,000 Elite Free-for-all is the feature race on the card.
The race looks set to be a race in two between Illegal Immigrant and Star Chamber.
The duo started first and second favourite in last months Devonport Cup where both horses didn’t have a lot of luck for there respective handicaps.
Tonight, both horses return to mobile start conditions where they will all start from the front row.
Tab.com.au will have a $1,000 Quaddie Jackpot on the UTAB pool which commences on race two.
Carrick Park will host their Cup Programme on Saturday afternoon.
There is no doubt the club will be delighted with the strong field they have attracted for the $12,000 Vandenberg Transport Carrick Cup that features five last start winners.
Some of the runners include last season's Group 3 Globe Derby Stakes winner Izaha, this year’s New Norfolk Pacing Cup winner Sea Double Ugrant and Devonport Cup runner up Inner Light are all expected to be at the top of the market.
There will be no off-track betting available on the seven-race card, which also means no coverage on RadioTAB, Sky Racing or on tasracing.com.au’s Live Stream.
However, the club has organised radio coverage with Launceston based community radio station City Park Radio, who will cover the race meeting on 103.7 FM and 96.5 FM in Launceston and surrounding areas. For those outside the listening area, you can listen to the action on cityparkradio.com
There is plenty of action north of Bass Straight with Tasmanian interest this weekend.
At Melton tonight the states leading trainer Ben Yole prepares No Apachemee in the Hero Claiming Pace.
The last start Launceston placegetter opened as a $41 chance with tab.com.au in the 1720-metre event.
After the action concluded’s at Carrick Park on Saturday all Tasmanian harness racing fans will be getting set to cheer on our local star, Ignatius in the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire, which is Australia’s premier race for four-year-old pacers at Menangle Park in Sydney.
The James Rattray trained and driven pacer has once again drawn poorly in gate nine in the $200,000 race at 9:47 pm.
He is currently the second elect at $3.00 with tab.com.au for the event and a win will secure him a spot in next months $1,000,000 Miracle Mile, which is also at Menangle Park where he currently sits on the third line of betting at $11.00.
