Washington Vc gelding Coolhand Easton continued his rise through the national rating system when recording his 14th career win in the Ladbrokes Sheffield Cup, which was held in Launceston on a cold Sunday night.
Stepping cleanly from the tapes in the 2698m trip, Coolhand Easton was able to jump straight to the lead, and driver Nathan Ford was confident of the pacers prospects during the early stages.
“Once I found the front and got a bit of a cheap quarter, which I didn’t think I would get in the race, I thought I would be hard to beat,” said Ford.
And hard to beat he was, with the gelding scoring by 4.5m over Kuzma and Kuyomi, who recorded yet another country cup placing.
Coolhand Easton started his career in New Zealand before a stint in the Riverina district of New South Wales, eventually ending up in the care of Brighton trainer Bianca Heenan.
“Jack Painting has been a good friend of mine for many years, and he thought Tasmania would suit this horse because of his good standing start manners, and it is certainly working that way.
“He is a pretty good all-around horse, he has been good at the mile and I think he can take the next step,” explained Ford.
Ford was in the sulky on the Robert Walters trained My Lady Sarah who scored in the D.H.R.C Devonport Belmont.
The daughter of Huntsville showed good speed to lead before running away from her rivals in a 27.5s final quarter to score by 14.7m.
“She ran out of the gate good and she was very good to drive for a two-year-old,” said Ford.
The filly is expected to only be in the state for a few weeks.
Be Major Threat recorded his first win since resuming to the state in the CUB Quality for the open class pacers, recoding a mile rate of 1m 55.1s for the 1680m trip.
The Brent Parish-trained Boston Busker completed a winning hat-trick when taking out the Lucas Hotel Latrobe Cup, while the Rohan Hadley-trained and driven mare Bridwood Bella registered back-to-back wins in the Tasracing Leigh Plunkett.
