TALENTED reinsman Rohan Hadley produced a personal best performance at the meeting in Launceston on Sunday where he drove five winners on the 10-race card.
To add more credence to the milestone, three of the winners were trained by his father Max Hadley who prepares a small team at Scottsdale in the far North-east of the state.
His winners for his father were highly promising mare Helvik, Transformer Man and the lightly raced Matesforever.
Hadley also saluted aboard The Ken Hall-trained Rememberpreece and Jilliby Rio for Brighton trainer Eric Jacobson.
The record haul took his season tally to 52 winners, which will see him finish a clear second behind Gareth Rattray who has the driver’s premiership wrapped up with 91 wins with only one meeting remaining of the 2008-2009 season.
Helvik’s win was welcomed by both trainer ands driver. The mare showed enormous potential last season winning three in succession between October 2007 and January 2008 but she was sidelined through injury that kept her off the scene for over a year.
“She kept going sore se we had her leg scanned and that revealed a chipped bone in her fetlock and that required an operation and at least 12 months in the paddock,” Max Hadley said.
“She’s been back in work since January but she’s had colds and viruses that kept delaying her return to racing,” he said.
Helvik was expected to return to the winners circle at her previous start in Hobart.
“We thought she’d win in Hobart at her previous start but she broke her hopes at the top of the straight when she was about to tackle the leaders,” he said.
Stablemate Transformer Man made light work of his task, scoring by 15 metres in the Betfair Stakes over 2200 metres but Matesforever, who started the $1.80 favourite, had to pull out all stops to outgun his rivals in a 3A0-3A1 over 2200 metres.
Matesforever got home by a head over tearaway leader Billabong Bertie, taking all the length of the home straight to run the leader down.