Old Beach trainer Paul Hill knows how to win a Sweepstakes Final, he has won five divisions of the race over the last six years but in the two $20,000 Finals in Hobart on Sunday the trainer has been given a mix of good and bad barrier draws.
In the Fillies Final his pacer Magic Pebbles has drawn ideally in barrier two, but in the Colts and Geldings Final both his two runners, Rocknroll Nitro and Rocknovertime have drawn barriers four and five on the second line respectively.
Hill rates Magic Pebbles his best chance of adding a Sweepstakes Final to his resume.
The Pet Rock filly is out of El Jays Magic and was third in the prelude two weeks ago behind Melnrowley.
“She led out of five in the prelude and I said to Ricky (Duggan) to let her come out and I left the rest up to him and he elected to hand up. But he said after the race she got a bit keen, so we will just see what happens tonight, but she is going to get a good run from the draw,” said the fillies trainer Paul Hill.
“She has improved out of sight in recent weeks, she can get on one knee a little bit, that’s why I have the spreaders on her,” added the trainer.
Hill rates prelude winner Melnrowley as the horse to beat given she has drawn well in barrier four with several other horses that would have had strong claims drawing poorly.
They include Written In Silk and Living On Prare who have drawn the second row and both horses recorded the quickest last half miles of the prelude in 58.15s with Living On Prare recording the fastest last quarter in 27.43s.
Rocknovertime has drawn barrier five on the second row in the colts and geldings final where he recorded the fastest heat time two weeks ago in 1m 59.0s when leading all the way to score by 17.7 metres. The Rock N Roll Heaven gelding’s best winning mile rate was in Hobart three starts ago in 1m 58.3s, also when leading and Hill isn’t concerned about the pacers attitude settling back in the field.
“It won’t be any trouble, he settles well behind others in trackwork, but he is going to need a bit of luck from the draw,” said Hill who expects the pacer to benefit from last starts first-up effort.
“He should (take benefit from the run), I think he is capable of running 1:57 if he is right and he is going to have to run about that from the draw,” added the trainer.
Hill has been in the sulky for the pacers last two wins but has elected to hand the reins off to Rohan Hillier who currently leads the states driver’s premiership on a countback.
“I have got enough to do on the night to get them three ready, I had to knock a few drives back in other races, I asked Rohan Hillier down there after the heats if he had a drive in the final and he said no, I said well you do now ” explained Hill.
Conor Crook will drive the other runner from the Hill stable in Rocknroll Nitro, who was fourth behind Stormy Sanz in his heat.
“He is only small, he needs a good draw and a soft little run to be anywhere there at the finish and I don’t like his chances tonight from the draw tonight,” said Hill.
Others to keep an eye on in the race is Heat winner Stormy Sanz who has drawn barrier seven, Lancelot who put up a great battle with Stormy Sanz to finish second and Agouda Ruler who recorded the quickest last half mile across the two heats in 57.76s and he was three-wide for a large portion of the last half of the race.
Sunday’s meeting has seen a change of start times to races one and two that were originally published to 16:45 and 17:24 respectively, the first race will be on Sky Racing 2 and with the change of times the last nine races will now be on Sky Racing 1. All races will be shown on TasracingTV.
