REIGNING premier Tasmanian reinsman Gareth Rattray made the most of a stay of proceedings that allowed him to drive at the Launceston Pacing Club’s Danbury Park Cup meeting at The TOTE Racing Centre on Sunday night.
Rattray was granted the stay after he appealed against an eight-meeting suspension that was handed down by stewards who alleged he failed to give his charge Lifttherunrate every reasonable chance to finish in the best possible position in a race in Hobart last Monday night.
On Sunday night the talented reinsman had five drives in the first six races for five wins, which is a personal best achievement for the 24-year-old.
The only one to let him down was outsider Albert Jones in the feature race, the Doug Martin Danbury Park Cup, which was the last race on the seven-event card.
Rattray opened his account with a heady front-running drive aboard Karalta MacLeod and he followed up with a similar piece of horsemanship to win with Kept Art that faced the breeze before forging to the lead in the home straight.
He then had to call on all of his strength to get the favourite Anoptimist home in the Going South 3YO.
Anoptimist settled last but when Rattray called on her to extend down the back straight she always looked to be struggling and 200m out she looked likely to miss a place but Rattray managed to get her going and she won in the last few strides.
While Gareth was without a drive in race four, his twin brother James won the race aboard Ashura that led throughout to win the Becks Home Timber & Hardware Stakes.
But Gareth was back at it in race five bringing the odds-on favourite Babyitsu from last to win the Max & Erla Preece Memorial over 1680 metres.
Rattray saved his best for last when he drove a great tactical race to get the Brooke Hammond-trained mare Down Town Babe home in the Boss Max final over 2200m.
He allowed the mare to ease back from her outside second-row draw but after travelling 500m metres he sent her charging around the field to face the breeze outside of Matai Nigel that made his run from midfield at the same time as Down Town Babe.
Rattray called on the mare for the supreme effort 200m out and she dug deep to hold out all challengers to score comfortably from Loaded Franco and Gracie Hart.
Rattray’s other winners were for his father Barrie (Kept Art and Anoptimist) and his grandfather Wayne Rattray (Karalta MacLeod and Babyitsu).