It has been a great week of harness racing with large holiday crowds attending the meetings in Devonport on Boxing Night and at Carrick Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Devonport meeting saw a good night for Ben and Mark Yole combining to win four of the eight races, but it was a terrific effort by officials and participants to run the last two races after a lighting issue resulted in a 90-minute delay to the final two races.
Carrick Park on Sunday saw a good crowd witness a competitive nine-race card.
Tomorrow we see the running of the states most attended race meeting at St Marys with racing also on King Island before we turn our attention to Launceston on Sunday night.
The Stars
Sunny Sanz – continued his rise through the grades with a narrow, but impressive win in the $12,000 Maxfield Drilling Meander Valley Cup at the gelded son of Sportswriters ninth race track appearance. Starting off a 10-metre handicap in the 2650 metre event. Driver Gareth Rattray enjoyed a lovely cart into the race over the final circuit to score. Trainer Kent Rattray was impressed with the four-year-old geldings first up effort, given the long-distance of the race with the Carrick Park Pacing Cup in February the short-term goal.
Soho Senna – remains undefeated in two Tasmanian starts after the gelded son of American Ideal won the $10,000 Cressy Transport Tasmanian Country Championship at Carrick Park on Sunday. Driver Christian Salter gave the Bianca Heenan trained pacer a lovely run one-out and one-back before pouncing on the leaders late to score by six-metres.
Streetside Classic – the seven-year-old gelding broke the Carrick Park track record when winning the opening race on the card in a mile rate of 1m 58.2s which took 0.8s off the previous track record held by Monarkmac last year. The gelded son of Metropolitan is trained by Darryl Bates and was well driven by Gareth Rattray.
Mister Gently – recorded a hat-trick of wins when scoring in the $12,000 Kevin Redpath North West Plate Final in Devonport on Thursday night. Trainer-driver Craig Hayes got the gelded son of Live Or Die through the field soon after the start of the 2286 metre standing start event to race outside the leader to record a narrow but impressive win.
Bring The Flave – broke his maiden status when winning the $12,000 7AD Allen Williams Memorial in Devonport on Thursday after racing three-wide for the final 1000-metres to score continuing the good feature race run for trainer-driver Rohan Hillier.
Multiple Winners
Devonport – Thursday evening
Ben Yole – training quartet; Just Say Go, Southern Gnp, Gentleman Red and Chilla Breeze.
Mark Yole – driving quartet; Just Say Go, Southern Gnp, Gentleman Red and Chilla Breeze.
Carrick Park – Sunday twilight
Gareth Rattray – driving double: Streetside Classic and Sunny Sanz.
Calculated Sectional Standouts
Quickest last halves (800m) from last week’s action.
Devonport – Thursday evening
Just Say Go 59.15s, Chilla Breeze 59.32s, Somedan 59.70s, Gentleman Red 59.98s and Island Rocknroll 60.06s.
Carrick Park – Sunday twilight
Sunny Sanz 56.35s, Chasing Cheetahs 56.91s, Our Percios 57.16s, Ideal World 57.18s and Goggo Gee Gee 57.41s.
View all available Tasmanian Sectional Data by clicking here.
Tasracing Official Price
Devonport – Thursday evening
Hit’s: Mister Gently $2.35 into $2.10, Southern Gnp $6.50 into $6.00 and Chilla Breeze $6.00 into $4.80.
Defied The Drift: Prettyindisguise $3.30 out to $3.80 and Bring The Flave $3.00 out to $3.20.
Missed: Dusty Martini $4.80 into $4.00, Island Bliss $7.00 into $3.80, Somedan $6.00 into $4.20, Auckland Ruby $4.40 into $3.80 and Jeans Mattjesty $2.00 into $1.75.
Carrick Park – Sunday twilight
Hit’s: Streetside Classic $15.00 into $6.50, Beam Me Up Chopper $4.20 into $3.50 and Machitelli $13 into $7.50.
Defied The Drift: Tizyalator $3.20 out to $3.80, Cardinal Ringo $1.50 out to $2.00, Sunny Sanz $1.80 out to $3.40, Chris Be Quick $3.80 out to $5.00 and The Floyd $4.00 out to $6.00.
Missed: Witch Master $10.00 into $6.50, Mister Gently $5.50 into $3.50, Rockandahardplace $6.00 into $3.60, Artyboy Glenwood $11.00 into $7.00, Chasing Cheetahs $11 into $7.50, Barooga Chance $8.00 into $5.50, My Ultimate Major $14.00 into $8.50 and Black Ops $10.00 into $7.00.
Trial File
Hobart – Monday evening
Four trials were staged where Call Me Hector recorded the quickest winning mile rate.
The gelded son of Art Major started off a 40-metre handicap and was too good for Raffaello by three metres in 2m 1.5s in quarters of 29.3s, 29.9s, 29.4s and 30.3s.
Rocknroll Nitro, a two-year-old gelded son of Rock N Roll Heaven, trained by Paul Hill recorded a head victory over stablemate Rocknovertime and Our Ideal Fella in a time of 2m 8.1s for 1609 metres.
Other winners were; Ark Fury (2m 8.4s) and Resurgent Storm (2m 2.9s)
Week Ahead
We kick off 2020 tomorrow with the annual race meeting at St Marys with a seven-race card on the 1300 metre grass track commencing at 12:30.
The $12,000 Southern Cross Austereo St Marys Pacing Cup is the feature race of the card were Full Speed Ahead, Black Centurian and Alt Surreal all share the 20 metre back mark in the 2685 metre event.
The meeting will have no off-track wagering and no off-track radio, television or live stream coverage, there will be an on-course tote and several bookmakers accepting bets on local and interstate races.
A large number of motor homes are already on track with the local golf course closed to accommodate the racegoers that have arrived early.
At the time of writing, there is a watch and act alert for a bush fire at the nearby town of Fingal which is of no concern for tomorrow’s meeting according to the club.
Tomorrow also sees the running of the $4,000 King Island Pacing Cup.
Trainer Graeme Keeley and driver Adrian Collins will be chasing back to back wins in the Island’s premier race when they team up with Ruffalo who is undefeated in two King Island starts.
Keeley has a three-prong attack in the race with Elegantly Spoken and Stevie Jolt.
The Cup is over 2438 metres and is scheduled to start at 15:05.
Sunday night the Launceston Pacing Club will stage an eight-race card commencing at 18:05 with the fields for that meeting to be released later this afternoon.
Interstate at metropolitan venues some of our Tasmanian representatives include;
Melton – Saturday night
Race 1 Horse 1 Bootleg Bert,
Race 8 Horse 5 Offthetopofmyhead.
Menangle – Saturday night
Race 7 Horse 10 Ignatius,
Race 8 Horse 6 Zhukov Leis,
Race 10 Horse 10 No Apachemee.