Short-price favourite Fighter Command produced an effortless win in Saturday night’s $80,000 Beautide (2090m) in Hobart, and in doing so secured Tasracing’s slot in next month’s $2.1m TAB Eureaka at Menangle in Sydney.
Sent out as the $1.14 favourite, driver James Herbertson took any bad luck out of the equation early on the Jess Tubbs-trained pacer, by working forward from his outside of the second-row draw in the early stages of the race to find the lead near the 1500m.
Once finding the lead, the Always B Miki gelding had the race run on his own terms, and raced away over the final 400m to score by 25.9m over Bettablack Tiger ($26) and Barbary Tales ($26).
The mile rate of 1:55.1s took 0.2s off the track record that Fighter Command set in last year’s Beautide as a three-year-old.
“He was very good tonight. Things worked out well, and he got a good trip,” said Herbertson.
“He was pretty relaxed in front and worked up the straight pretty well. It seemed a bit of an easier field this year than last year, and they respected him, and I think he earned the respect.
Fighter Command, a Tasmanian-bred pacer who is raced by WA-based connections, was to represent Tasracing in last year’s Eureka, but was scratched in the lead-up to the race when he was left fighting for life with a twisted bowel.
The pacer is currently the second favourite for this year’s running.
“It’s a good race for him in terms of the quality, he is definitely up to them and won’t be out of place.
He’s a good speed horse, so hopefully the speed will be on and he gets his chance to get into it. It will just come down to luck in the running,” said the driver.
