In Brief
- Izaha too strong in Danbury Park Cup.
- Bremusa’s brilliant gate speed helps win mares feature.
- Short term plans still up in the air for both horses.
Trainer-driver Todd Rattray dominated the two feature races in Launceston last night including the $12,000 Doug Martin Danbury Park Cup with Izaha.
The Roll With Joe entire stepped cleanly from his 20-metre handicap in the 2698-metre event to settle one-out and four-back following the other 20-metre handicap rival Illegal Immigrant.
Rattray was able to flush Illegal Immigrant out three-wide at the 1100-metre mark which gave Izaha a lovely three-wide cart into the race before Rattray eased four-wide at the top of the home straight to prove too good for Koolaz Elvis by 1.7-metres with Karalta Dazzler a neck away third.
“It was only his second run back from a spell and over the long-distance, I was very happy with the way he finished off, but he did have a lovely run during the race,” said trainer-driver Todd Rattray post-race.
The mile rate was 2m 0.1s, just outside the track record set by his half-brother Harjeet in the 2018 Easter Cup.
There is no doubt that Izaha will ultimately join Harjeet in the New South Wales stables of James Rattray but that trip could be brought forward sooner with Rattray and the connections yet to decide on where the talented pacer goes next.
“We are trying to plan what to do next with him now as he is going to be handicapped out of everything in Tasmania now, which is a shame as he has only won that race as an open aged horse,” explained Rattray.
“If he goes to Sydney now, with his rating he would have to race Harjeet so we are a bit unsure on what to do,” added the trainer-driver.
Rattray’s big night started earlier in the program in the Shirley Martin Mother Of Pearl when five-year-old mare Bremusa took out the Launceston Pacing Club’s premier mares race.
Todd Rattray launched the mare from outside of the front to find the lead in the 2200-metre event.
“We wasn’t too sure what to do from barrier seven, but she always goes well in front and we thought that we would bite the bullet early and seen what happens,” said Rattray.
“She stuck on well late,” added the Longford based trainer.
Bremusa scored by 1.9-metres over Volkova Leis with Ready To Fire back in third position in a mile rate of 2m 1.0s.
Traditionally the Mother Of Pearl was the main lead up race to the George Johnson in March, but a reshuffle of the feature race calendar last season now sees the race held in March, so the connections of Bremusa have a decision to make.
“She is qualified from a stand so the country cups are an option, the George Johnson is not until March so we could give her a break and look at setting her for that, I will discuss that with the owners later in the week,” explained Rattray.
In other news from the Rattray family, Ignatius is expected to have his first start back from a spell at Menangle on Saturday night.
Last nights Launceston card saw a number of trainers and drivers record multiple wins.
Todd’s brother Gareth won the first race on Rainbow Phoenix before dead heating for first on Thomas Burns later in the night.
Last seasons’ leading junior driver Conor Crook drove Believe In Forever and Awayandrideyourself to victory while leading trainer Ben Yole prepared Tarleton Riley to a dead heat win and Southern Gnp was able to win at his Tasmanian debut.
Watch Breumsa take out the Shirley Martin Mother Of Pearl