In Brief
- Six-races tonight on the north-west coast.
- Leading trainer looking to add to season tally with many chances.
- Yole planning another Victorian mission.
The Devonport Harness Racing Club will stage a six-race program tonight at the Devonport Showgrounds where trainer Ben Yole plays a strong hand at the meeting.
Yole acceptors include a number of his horses returning from a spell or back from his Victorian satellite stable.
It was always the intention of Yole that the Victorian stable was only in operation while Tasmania was only hosting one meeting a week and last season’s leading state trainer was happy with the performance in Victoria.
“I was very happy with the Victorian trip, we got 15-winners and around $120,000 in prize-money in about three months,” said Yole.
“We are looking at going back again in April and we have been in talk with a few different people of having a more permanent stable in the Shepparton area,” added Yole.
Yole has trained 12-winners in Tasmania this season and will be looking to add to his winning tally in the second race of the night where he is well represented.
“Pushkin and My Ultimate Major are both chances as some of the class horses are all drawn out the back such as The Lemondrop Kid and Lake Eyre,” said Yole.
My Ultimate Major has drawn barrier three and will be driven by Ben’s brother Mark.
The gelded son of Art Major won a trial on the Devonport track on 4 November before being defeated in Hobart last week.
“I thought he was very unlucky last week, so he should run a race this week without any bad luck,” the trainer explained.
The Yole camp plays a strong hand in race three where the stable has four runners returning from a spell, they being Heidi Go Seek, Jakes A Joy, Shadow Affair and Whenthegroundshook with Yole believing all will take benefit out of tonight’s event.
Of those with recent racing Yole rates Coveffe Hustler with Mark Yole in the sulky as one of the main chances.
“Coveffe Hustler is probably our best chance in the event, he is quick off the gate and is probably the leader … I give Mach Charm a bit of a chance as a roughie,” added Yole.
One of the horses Yole had in his Victorian stable was Somedan who goes around in race four.
The winner of 11-races won by 19.4-metres at his most recent win at Mildura on 30 October before finishing down the track in a metropolitan race at Melton on 9 November.
“He has come back from racing metropolitan horses and should find this a drop-in class, he is probably a better front runner but he has come wide and ran a lot of placings,” explained Ben who added that Somedan “is probably our best winning chance of the night.”
Somedan is raced by Danny and Joanne Zavitsanos who own Tuesday’s New Zealand Cup winner, Cruz Bromac.
Tonight’s six-race card commences at 18:00 and will be televised on Sky Racing 2 and TasracingTV.
Watch Coveffe Hustler finish third in Hobart five-starts ago on 29 September: