RISING Tasmanian harness racing star Gedlee could start a warm favourite in Sunday night’s Group 1 $100,000 Wrest Point Tasmania Cup after drawing favourably in gate two for the state’s richest pacing event.
An official barrier draw was held in the Tasman Room at Wrest Point Casino this morning and it (barrier draw) was broadcast live on Victorian-based Sport 927’s Big Sports Breakfast radio show.
The race has attracted a quality field of 12 with two-thirds of the field hailing from interstate, including New Zealand-bred Cincinnati Kid from the Mark Peace stable in Victoria.
Gedlee emerged as genuine contender for the race after he demolished a quality field in the Launceston Pacing Cup at The TOTE Racing Centre in Launceston last Sunday night.
The four-year-old’s trainer Phil Rawnsley said Gedlee emerged from last Sunday night’s assignment unscathed.
“He left a bit of his feed on Monday morning but we didn’t get back to the stables until about 1am so that might have been expected but he never left a grain this morning,” Rawnsley said.
“I couldn’t be happier with the horse’s condition and drawing gate two is just the icing on the cake,” he said.
“We have a couple of options from gate two and that’s always a bonus when you are going into a big race,” he said.
Gedlee is unbeaten from four starts this preparation and while he is lightly raced the stallion has taken every rise in class in his stride.
Rawnsley has been humbled by the arrival of Gedlee in his stable.
“I’ve been training 46 years and this horse is clearly the best I’ve had.”
“To have a horse good enough to make it into a Group 1 race is great but to have one that is a real winning chance is amazing,” Rawnsley said.
Gedlee defeated the Brian Hancock-trained Vegas Bound in last Sunday night’s Launceston Cup after leading throughout, while Vegas Bound had to come from last after drawing the outside of the second line.
However, Vegas Bound has drawn barrier three on Sunday night and Rawnsley says that horse may have enough early speed to lead Gedlee.
“Vegas Bound has good gate speed so we don’t want to get into an all-out speed battle early so we might have to take the softer option at the start but I’ll leave all that up to Sam (driver Sam Rawnsley),”the trainer said.
The final field for the Tasmania Cup to be run over 2579 metres at Tattersall’s Park on Sunday night:
Front:
1 – Our Chain Of Commands.
2 – Gedlee.
3 – Vegas Bound.
4 – Thomas Pyke.
5 – Dodgermemate.
6 – Dance Of The Deity.
7 – The Gunstar
Second Row:
8 – Ti Vogliobene.
9 – Village Of Dreams.
10 – Cincinatti Kid (NZ).
11 – Glenferrie Alexis.
12 – Our Sir Jeckyl.