IT is rare for multiple premiership-winning Tasmanian reinsman Gareth Rattray to salute aboard a near rank outsider but that how the second race in Hobart panned out tonight.
Lightly raced four-year-old mare Ebony La Kita came from well back to run down tearaway leader Blitzemgamble in the last few strides of the Pack and Send Pace over 2090 metres at Tattersall’s Park.
The Ivan Belbin-trained mare has been plagued by injuries and illness almost from the day she came into work as a yearling.
La Ebony Kita (Artistic Fella-La Nikita) had a fall as a two-year-old and opened both knees in the training track mishap.
“When she came into work as a two-year-old I was confident she would be very good against the best but everything went wrong,” Belbin said.
“She opened both knees up twice in track accidents and then she got foot ulcers that took forever to heal,” he said.
Ebony La Kita was off the scene for 15 months and returned to racing at the end of August with a last of nine in Hobart.
But she lifted her gamer at her subsequent outing to run third in Hobart and that suggested to Belbin that she was ready to win.
“I put Gareth (Rattray) on tonight and he drove her a treat,” the trainer said.
“Gareth used to drive her mother (La Nikita) and he says this mare has some of her mother’s old traits.
“This mare hangs in when she gets tired just like her mum but she also has her dam’s good turn of foot and I reckon that’s going to allow her to win moiré races,” Rattray said.
Ebony La Kita scored by a head from Blitzemgamble with Barooza doing her best work at the business end of the race to grab third and well clear of the rest.