In Brief
- Ignatius vs Ryley Major again.
- Youngbloods Challenge commences.
- Catch it all on TasracingTV and Sky Racing 1.
Harness racing returns to Hobart on Sunday night for a bumper 10-event card, where once again we see the clash of the state’s best pacers, including Ignatius and Ryley Major in the seventh race, the Ladbrokes Pace.
Ignatius will start from barrier four after the scratching of his stablemate Izaha while Ryley Major will begin outside of him in the 2090-metre event, a reverse of the barriers from the last clash of the duo on 22 November where Ryley Major showed good early speed to lead and forced Ignatius to race outside him and defeat him, in a moderate mile rate for the open class races of 1m 58.0s, with the last half mile in 55.9s.
The clash of those pacers has overshadowed the first three heats of the Youngbloods Challenge which gets underway on Sunday night.
In a change from tradition, the six-race series will be split across two meetings with further heats to be held in Launceston next week.
There will be no heats held in Devonport this year.
Former Kiwi reinsman Sam Clotworthy will be out to secure the maximum 16 points in the first heat, which is race two on the in-form Jakes A Joy who is prepared by Clotworthy’s boss, Ben Yole, and has drawn inside of the second-row where he follows out the likely leader Border Cross who will be driven by Charlie Castles.
Heat two sees former Victorian pacer Gone And Forgotten have his first start in the state, and the Conor Cook-trained pacer has drawn very well in barrier one.
The Well Said mare has won two out of her last four starts, the most recent win was at Cranbourne on 9 October where she led all the way from barrier one over the mile trip in 1m 58.4s.
Gone And Forgotten will be driven by Matthew Howlett who is the youngest driver ever to win the Youngbloods at 16 years and seven months of age in 2013, he won the title again in 2016.
The final heat sees three former interstate pacers sit at the top of the market all having their Tasmanian debut.
Liberal Arden (Lachlan Dakin) has been doing his recent racing in Queensland where he was a Redcliffe winner six starts ago and has been placed in four starts since that effort, Signorina Jujon (Malcom Jones) was also a Redcliffe winner two starts back, while Postal Run (Matthew Howlett) arrives in the state off a last start win at Mildura.
Sunday night’s card commences at 17:14.
All races will be streamed on TasracingTV and shown on Sky Racing 1.
Watch Ignatius defeat Ryley Major on 22 November.