In Brief
- Duggan, Smith and Yole record multiple wins.
- Vouvray Beach terrific in $12,000 Mares feature.
- A Spanish Dance scores first-up for new stable.
Hall of fame reinsman Ricky Duggan very rarely travels down the Bass Highway, but when he does punters should take notice, and those that did last night at the Devonport Showgrounds will have their pockets filled with the master driver registering a winning double from only two drives on the meeting.
Duggan got on the winner’s list early when three-year-old filly A Spanish Dance was able to make the most of her pole draw over the 1930 metre trip where she led all the way to score.
A Spanish Dance was having her first start for the Marc Butler stable and had won one of her eight starts before Sunday’s race where she was very well supported from $4.60 into $2.70.
“Drawn one over the short trip suited her and when she had a nice middle lap, she was always going to be hard to rundown,” said Duggan about the win.
“There was a couple in the race that go reasonable and she handled them alright, they ran a mile rate of 2m 0.3s which is a good run around Devonport,” added the winning driver.
A Spanish Dance defeated last season’s two-year-old colt and gelding of the year, Colby Sanz, by 13.4 metres with Better Amour a further 7.8 metres away third.
Duggan’s next win on the card came in the $12,000 feature race on the card, the Ladbrokes Mares Incentive with Vouvray Beach (pictured).
Sent out the $1.90 favourite, the daughter of Somebeachsomewhere was kept honest in the early stages in a solid lead time of 49.5s, the quickest recorded at the venue in the past 11 months (before subsequently being broken in the next race) which demonstrates how tough the win was with the mare being able to burn the candle at both ends of the race.
Duggan was able to tap the breaks during a 62.8s first half of the last mile with the last two-quarters of the race recorded in 29.8s and 31.2s.
“She did a good job, her last few starts have been good runs but she has just struggled to win, but she probably hadn’t been rock hard fit while they were trying to get her in foal,” explained Duggan about the five-metre win over Karpenkova Leis and Mavis Merle.
“The key to her was the pole draw even though she copped some pressure, drawn one around Devonport with the short straights the back markers haven’t got much time to come at you like the bigger tracks,” added the winning driver.
The racing career of Vouvray Beach is winding down as the five-year-old mare is in foal to Betting Line.
Duggan wasn’t the only participant to leave the Devonport Showgrounds with multiple wins.
Trainer Ben Yole once again had a night out with a training treble with Frostyflyer, Somedan and Coveffe Hustler all greeting the judge first.
Local trainer Geoff Smith also registered a double with Laid Back Kenny scoring a 20.4-metre win at $19.00 before Chris Be Quick ($14.00) led home a stable quinella in race seven.