Top pacing mare Spring Hill has collapsed and died on the training track. Her regular driver Rohan Hadley, whose wife was a part-owner, said the six-year-old was believed to have suffered a ruptured aorta.
It was an unfortunate twist of fate for connections, as Spring Hill was retired to stud last season and only returned to racing after she failed to get in foal.
“She hadn’t been able to regain anything like her top form this year but only recently her times were starting to get back to something like her best,” Hadley said.
“But she still wasn’t going to be competitive in the class in which she had to race.”
Spring Hill won 15 races and $100,000 and twice recorded mile rates of just over 1:56.
She is the second top Tasmanian mare to die in similar circumstances this season.
Deanna Troy died, also of a ruptured aorta, in November.