Seven-year-old gelding Tell The Bartman broke through for his maiden win when scoring by 17.6m in the Ladbrokes Communities Pace (2200m) in Launceston on Sunday night.
The Chris Viney-trained pacer settled back at the tail of the field before circling his rivals from the 500m to score at his tenth career start, defeating Major Ideal ($101) and Soho Undertaker ($5.50) in a mile rate of 2:01.8s.
The gelding has caused plenty of headaches for his Carrick-based trainer, who was delighted with the win.
“It’s been a long time coming. He has viruses, hoof abscesses and maturity to overcome.
“I put him out for two years thinking he may grow up a little bit, which he did and got out of some of his silly habits, but he still has a few,” said Viney.
“He worked well during the week. But he is a horse you have got to race fresh. He can’t back up as he can lose a bit too much weight. So we have got to pick his races a bit,” the trainer, owner and breeder added.
Viney bred the gelded son of Tell All, who is out of the unraced mare Roses In September, who is a half-relation to Tranquility Lodge, who Viney raced with good success.
The win was the first leg of a driving double for Brodie Davis, who won later in the night with talented three-year-old Smooth Machete. That win completed the first-ever training double for Mark Reggett, who also prepared Smooth Reason to victory in the opening race.
Reggett shared training honours at the meeting with Emma Stewart, who prepared How Sweet and Waterfront to victory.
