LAST season’s top three-year-old pacer Beautide returned to racing in style with an emphatic win in the Westbury Cup 2650m at Carrick Park Paceway near Launceston on last Friday night.
Beautide ($2.20fav) made light of a 30-metre handicap to come from midfield turning for home to score convincingly from Rock And Run with left Loaded a close-up third.
The Barrie Rattray-trained gelding dominated in his three-year-old season winning the Tasmanian Guineas, 3YO Championship, Prince of Pace and he capped the season with victory in the $30,000 Globe Derby Stakes (sires stakes) final.
The gelded son of Bettor’s Delight-Gorse Bush also was the first Tasmanian home (4th) in the SEW Eurodrive Tasmanian Derby.
He had 10 starts last season for nine wins for just over $62,000 in stakes.
Rattray was delighted with Beautide’s first-up effort.
“I was very pleased with that – he got a nice run but you need that when you are coming off 30 metres,” Rattray said.
It was Beautide’s first start for almost 10 months but he has been in work a while.
“He had a hard year – 10 starts doesn’t sound like a lot but they were spread over a long period with no real break.”
“So I took the opportunity to give him a real good spell,” he said.
Despite scoring impressively at his first outing this preparation, Rattray is likely to avoid the temptation to tackle the Easter Cup next month and instead aim his stable star at the Raider Stakes (4YO sires stakes) at Devonport on April 29.
“I don’t really want him to take on the good older horses before he has to so the Raider Stakes is the tentative short-term goal,” the trainer said.
Rattray also said Beautide could end up in Victoria tackling the Breeders Crown series later in the year.