Tasracing

The best pacer in Tasmania at present Ryley Major looks set to add another feature race win to his glowing resume when he lines up in tonight’s Group 3 Triple M Hobart Pacing Cup at Ladbrokes Park Elwick tonight.

Ryley Major, a seven-year-old gelding, has won 25 of his 35 starts for nine placings, the only time he hasn’t finished in the top three placings he was actually first past the post before being disqualified by stewards.

His record could have been far greater if the pacer didn’t have any leg issues that forced him to have a 982-day break between July 2016 and March last year.

It is not only a credit to trainer-driver Rohan Hillier to get the pacer back to the track, but racing at the top level.

The gelded son of Art Major goes into tonight’s Hobart Pacing Cup off a tough win in Hobart on 26 January where he drew outside of the front row to score in the Toreace Flying Mile.

The mile was covered in 1m 55.6s with quarters of 27.6s, 30.8s, 28.6s and 28.9s.

“He has done a good job, obviously the wind was strong, and he was out there facing it, he was a little bit tired late, but he was still holding them on the line,” said Hillier after the race.

Hillier elected to miss last week’s standing start feature, the $30,000 Devonport Pacing Cup instead electing to focus on tonight’s mobile start feature.

“It’s a random barrier draw tonight so there was always a chance we could draw well, the Devonport Cup he may have got 30 or 40 metres,” explained Hillier.

The star pacer opened up the $1.18 favourite for the race last night with the two horses drawn inside him, the only two in single figures with Izaha at $7.00 and Dasher Houli opening an $8.00 chance.

We can expect to see a good battle between those two pacers early to try and get the lead, and likely the spot on the back of Ryley Major.

Izaha drew barrier six in the Toreace Flying Mile where he was able to cross Dasher Houli early who drew the pole on that occasion.

The task for Izaha is actually made harder tonight drawn beside the pacer in barrier two as it may give Dasher Houli something to go with early from the pole.

A victory in tonight’s Hobart Pacing Cup will see Ryley Major notch up his tenth win in a row and given the pacers dominance he could go close to breaking the state record of consecutive wins.

That record is held by Halwes with 13 wins over Resurgent Spirit and Happy Prospect who scored 12 victories in a row.

Given Ryley’s Major dominance in the state, he could give that record a nudge on the eve of the state’s Autumn Carnival that features the Group 2 Tasmania Cup and Easter Cup.

Tonight’s Hobart Pacing Cup commences at 18:03 where we will see three-year-old Kohanah start potentially even shorter odds than Ryley Major will in tonight’s feature.

The card will feature a hosted Live Stream on TasracingTV. The cup will be shown on Sky Racing 1 with the remainder of the card on Sky Racing 2.