The Two-Year-Old Finals of the Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes series take centre stage on a 10-race card in Hobart on Wednesday.
Originally scheduled to be held last Sunday, the meeting was transferred to Wednesday evening after a three-day snap lockdown of Southern Tasmania that was lifted at 6.00 pm on Monday.
The Tasbred Fillies will contest the $50,000 Prydes Easifeeds Evicus over 1609m, where the short price favourite Baby You A Song will be missing after sustaining a leg injury late last week.
The scratching has made the task a bit easier for the Kent Rattray trained Mays Place, who has won four of her eight starts this season.
“I went from reasonable happy to extremely happy (with the scratching), but we still have to beat a couple of others, but it does improve our chances remarkably,” Rattray said when speaking on radio during the week.
Since winning the $20,000 Fillies Sweepstakes Final on 19 September, Mays Place hasn't been seen, with Rattray electing to miss the Evicus Prelude on 3 October.
“I don’t think our filly was right when she won the sweepstakes. She didn’t pace well and was hanging out, that’s the main reason why we didn’t race in the Evicus Prelude because we thought she would benefit from the month of not racing and the trips to Hobart as she had three trips in a row, so we elected to miss the prelude and put all our efforts into the final,” explained the Lietinna based trainer.
The Shoobees Place filly will be driven by Kent’s nephew Gareth Rattray.
“Gareth (Rattray) used to drive her mother (Karalta Crown), and she is much like her mother by doing everything right and probably has a bit more talent than her mother had. She won nine two-year-olds and ran third in a Breeders Crown,” the trainer said.
The main danger in the race is Miss Papenhuyzen, who will start from the pole. The Rohan Hillier trained daughter of Sweet Lou has won one of her five starts in her career but has been runner up on four occasions.
The Tasbred colts and geldings will do battle in the $50,000 Prydes Easifeeds Dandy Patch Final over 2090m, where the Chris Howlett trained Mickey Oh will start the short price favourite.
Mickey Oh, a gelded son of Racing Hill, has won three of his four starts, including the $20,000 Colts and Geldings Sweepstakes Final on 19 September, before scoring in the Dandy Patch Prelude on 3 October at odds of $1.16.
The pacer has worked forward to either lead or race outside the leader in his last three starts.
If there is to be an upset, it could come in the way of the Leigh Rand trend Gethomeroy.
The pacer ran second in Devonport on debut after breaking at the start, before finishing fifth in the Dandy Patch prelude, where he settled back in the field.
Since the prelude, the gelded son of Four A Reason won a trial in Launceston on 10 October by 23.6 metres in a mile rate of 1m 56.5s (unofficially breaking the Launceston aged track record), which was quicker than any of the 10-races held after the trial season.
Wednesdays Hobart card will be televised on Sky Racing 2, and where time permits, the on-track hosted Sky Racing Active coverage will be simulcast on Sky Racing 2 telecast.
The meeting will also be live-streamed on Tasracing TV, with race one set down for 5.33 pm.
