Four winners at Devonport on Sunday night has put Gareth Rattray within eight wins of a significant milestone – 1000 career winners. Rattray won with Safety Girl and Blingittothe max for East Devonport trainer Paul Ashwood, Faithful Gabby for his partner Melissa Maine and Me Mate Les for Stowport mentor Andrew Rawlings.
The 29 year old Latrobe resident is clearly the best local driver having won nine consecutive premierships and Rattray (53 wins) holds a 21 win lead over his brother Todd in the 2014/15 award. Ricky Duggan (29) and Nathan Ford (29) are equal third ahead of Rohan Hiller (27)
Rattray will become the fifth Tasmanian to achieve the milestone. The elite group is Barrie Rattray (1567 wins), Neville Webberley (1369), Ricky Duggan (1331) and Darrell Alexander (1315). The majority of Alexander’s wins (approx 950) were achieved in Queensland.
Barrie Rattray, Webberley and Duggan were all inducted into the Tasracing Harness Hall Of Fame in September 2014 and it is obvious that Alexander and Gareth Rattray will be considered for induction in the near future.