It was an evening of high class pacing at the Launceston Pacing Club’s meeting at Mowbray on Sunday.
The Island Block and Paving Pace for two year olds saw the appearance of first starter Offthetopofmyhead. This colt raced outside the leader all the way and then raced away from the field in the straight to score easily by nine metres . The mile rate of 1:58.3 was the second fastest two year old time recorded in the state. Hillview Jake set the mark of 1:57.8 last season. The previous Launceston track record for a two year old was 1:58.6 established by Thirsty Mach in April 2009.
Offthetopofmyhead is by Western Ideal from the Canadian mare Precious Delight, a daughter of Precious Bunny, that earned over a million dollars during her racing career. He was bred at the Yirribee Pacing Stud in NSW. He is owned by Mick Maxfield and was driven by trainer Paul Ashwood, and this owner/ trainer/ driver combination also had success with Melolyn later on in the evening.
Classy filly Chica Bella had her final hitout before the $30,000 Tasmanian Oaks in Hobart next Sunday night, when she led all the way in the Bevan Lee’s Butchery Stakes for C1 class, covering the 1680 metre distance at a 1:58.9 rate. The daughter of Cardmaster Hanover has now won her last five starts and took her record to nine wins and three placings from thirteen lifetime starts. The only time she has been out of the placings was when she was pulled up in a race at Mowbray when the sulky tyre came off the rim.
Chica Bella’s trainer Paul Hill was very pleased with her run and intends to start her in the Tasmanian Oaks next week in Hobart and then prepare her for the $30,000 Bandbox Stakes later on in the season, after which she will be spelled.
New South Wales filly Gina Grace had a very easy win in the 3C0/3C1 for fillies winning by ten metres. Although it was only her second win from 17 lifetime starts, her previous was at Addington in New Zealand last December, where she recorded a rate of 1:55.6 for the 1950 metre journey. Gina Grace’s previous start before coming to Tasmania was a gallant fifth to New Zealand super filly Our Dream About Me in the $200,000 NSW Oaks.
Two heats of the $40,000 Easter Cup were conducted with the final being at Launceston in a fortnight. The first heat was won by the backmarker Melolyn who has only recently returned from NSW where he has been racing at Menangle. The race was looked on a match between Jerry’s Jet, who failed to leave the mark, Jaruzelski Leis and Queen’s Advocate.
However, things changed quickly after the start with Macho Comacho taking up the running and looking all over a winner in the straight before Melolyn finished strongly along the fence to defeat him by two metres with Jaruzelski Leis, who faced the breeze all the way, in third place. The race was run at a very fast pace with the winner covering the 2698 metres at a 2:00.3 rate. This time would have won all the Easter Cups that have been held over this distance since 2002, except for the 2009 event won by Ohaka Utah, who recorded a 2:00 rate for the journey.
The second heat resulted in an easy win for Resurgent Spirit. Although slowly away, he was always well placed and after taking up the running over the gallant Truly Blissfull in the straight defeated that pacer by a length, with Major Callum close up third. The Victorian visitor Five Star Anvil found the forty metre handicap too big to overcome and struggled into fifth place. Resurgent Spirit recorded a rate of 2:01.9 for the journey, with the lead time over four seconds slower than the first heat. The winner is raced and trained by Roger Whitmore of New Norfolk and was well driven by James Austin.
Watch the race replays here.