In Brief
- Szczypka to keep finding suitable races for Reign Of Pain.
- Kivik outstays his rivals.
- Lip Reader notches up win eight of the season
The Heath Szczypka-trained pacer Reign Of Pain registered his second win of the season when he scored in the McKillop Insurance Brokers Discretionary in Launceston on Wednesday night.
Reinsman Todd Rattray settled the pacer one-out and two-back where they followed slow early sections.
The lead time was run in 47.2s before a 32.9s first quarter. The leaders then put the foot down running 29.8s 28.7s and 29.1s for the final three quarters, with Rattray being able to push the $5.50 chance into the clear at the top of the home straight to score by 5.8 metres over Shelby Bromac and Proficient.
“His form has been good, he has been running quick last halves when settling back in the field and his numerical form doesn’t reflect that,” said in-form trainer Heath Szczypka after the win.
“The standing starts suit him a lot, he has always been very competitive in them,” added the trainer who has trained three winners and three placings in his last 10 starters.
It was the 14th career win for Reign Of Pain who is a 10-year-old gelded son of Armbro Operative, with the victory taking his prizemoney earnings past the $140,000 mark and the trainer is happy to keep finding suitable races for the pacer going forward.
“I have no plans with him, he is up in that grade where he needs more stands but a junior driver claim may be the next thing to drop back a class,” said Szczypka.
After being runner-up in his last three outings the Mark Yole-trained and driven pacer Black Ops was able to break through for an overdue win.
The Major In Art entire settled back last, one-out and seven-back, and was out six-wide turning for home and was still too good for his rivals despite the leaders getting away with 64.7s opening half of the final mile.
Three-year-old Kivik was another tough winner on the program when the three-year-old gelding led up the three-wide line over the final lap to score in a three-year-old race for horses with no more than one win this season.
Sent out the race favourite, it was a confident drive by Ben Parker on the gelded son of Courage Under Fire who has now won two of his five starts.
Lip Reader continued on his winning way in a rating 68 to 77 event.
Trainer Rohan Hillier elected to use the concession claim of driver Conor Crook and he didn’t let favourite punters down with the pacer scoring by four metres to register the Sportswriter gelding’s eighth win of the season.
Hillier made it a double later in the night when he drove the Michael Laugher-trained Christian Jaz to an all the way win in the Trainers Encouragement Pace.
Trainer Ben Yole was another to record a double on the card. He bookended the meeting with My Ultimate Romeo and Island Rocknroll.
Castor Troy was one of the more impressive winners of the night when scoring by 13 metres in a rating 56 to 60 race with Hannah Van Dongen taking the reins for Ray Pullen.
Hannah’s father Craig was also in the winner’s circle with Art Frenzy who was well rated leading all the way by two-time King Island Cup winning driver Adrian Collins.