In Brief
- Double for McDonald.
- Pullen ends night in form.
- Day out for Duggan family.
Claiming novice driver Troy McDonald continued his good run in the sulky in recent weeks with a driving double in Hobart on Friday night.
McDonald’s first win of the night came aboard the Wayne Yole-trained Brighton Prince.
The three-year-old gelded son of Mach Three was having his first start in the state from Queensland.
Now trained by Wayne Yole, Brighton Prince was positioned one-out and one-back by McDonald before peeling three-wide at the 300-metre mark and the pacer dashed away to score his fourth career win by 13.6 metres.
McDonald scored later in the night on $26 chance Artiflash.
Trained by Ben Yole, the gelded son of Artistic Fella settled behind the leader from his second row draw before being too quick for his rivals in the straight.
McDonald has now driven 62 winners for the season and is in fifth position on the premiership.
Brighton trainer Ray Pullen ended the night with a training double.
Gipsy Treasure was able to overcome an outside of the front row draw and prove too tough for her rivals in a rating 30 to 49 event to give Hannah Van Dongen a one win lead in the female drivers premiership, while Most Perfect Major scored back-to-back wins in the final race.
The Major In Art filly sat off a hot early tempo to score by 15.7 metres with Paul Williams in the sulky.
Sent out the $1.85 favourite, the filly started in black figures with the on track bookie.
It was also a big day for the Duggan family. Ricky drove Watchmylips to victory in what was the master reinsmans 65th win of the season, while his son Josh notched up his 500th career win aboard Van Gogh at Yarra Valley in country Victoria.
Watch Watchmylips record an 11-metre win in race four.