Tasracing

It has been 84 days but harness racing returns to northern Tasmania in Launceston on Sunday evening.

One of the highlights of tonight’s meeting is the fifth race, for pacers of a national rating of 77 to 90 over 2200 metres.

The race sees Dapper Dana return from retirement and the Rohan Hillier-trained and driven pacer has impressed in two recent trials, he will take on Blackbird Power who was brave in defeat after a tough run last week in Hobart.

One of many questions punters have with Blackbird Power is how he will back up after that effort.

Well, it isn’t much of a concern for his trainer Zeke Slater.

“He was three-wide the trip in Burnie four starts ago and then won two days later going his last half in 56 (seconds),” said Slater who took over the training responsibilities after that win.

“If anything, he only had two trials prior to the run last week and he should be a little better from that run,” added the trainer.

That run was in Hobart where the pacer raced three and four-wide before finding the spot outside the leader at the mile mark.

After the fast lead time, the pacer stuck on well late to be defeated a head by No Spring Secrets in a mile rate of 1m 59.2s.

Sunday, the gelded son of Mach Three has to overcome barrier four of the second row, where the trainer rates comeback pacer Dapper Dana as the horse to beat.

“Dapper Dana is the hardest to beat, he is first-up for a long time, and he has always had big wraps on him, he will obviously be in front of us early,” explained Slater.

Dapper Dana hasn’t raced since finishing fifth to Harjeet in the heat of the Easter Cup in March 2018.

“He was actually retired, he had a long injury that has sort of plagued him throughout his racing career,” said Hillier when speaking on Tasracing’s From The Stables Podcast.

Hillier credited his daughter Makenna for doing a lot of the work with the pacer to get him back to the track, including two strong trial victories.

“You can’t beat race fitness, I’m sure he is definitely fitter than he has been at the trials and his trials have been pretty good,” added Hillier.

Dapper Dana’s first trial victory was in Launceston on 23 May in a mile rate of 2m 0.2s before scoring on 6 June in 2m 5.7s. Both trials were over 2200 metres.

Tonight’s meeting kicks off at 16:50 with a two-year-old event which will be televised on Sky Racing 2 where recent trial winner Bridwood Bella is the short price favourite.

The last nine races will be on Sky Racing 1.

All races will be televised on TasracingTV where there will be the recommencement of limited participant interviews.