Horatius Speculo now has a 7BU Burnie Cup, to sit beside his recent North Eastern Pacing Cup, after claiming Burnie’s premier race on Sunday afternoon.
Sent out the $2.10 favourite, the Art Major four-year-old entire was a little bit scratchy away in the 2789m standing start event, before hitting his straps to zoom straight to the lead.
Driver Dylan Ford got a comfortable time in front on the Tammy Langley-trained pacer, with the lead time of 1:39.0s being 7.5s slower than last year’s Cup. They then ran a 63.3s first half of the final mile before increasing the tempo to run the final two quarters in 30.4s and 27.7s to record a five-metre win over Maebee ($2.80) with The Chancer 10.6m away third in a mile rate of 2:07.2s.
“He had a light week (after Scottsdale), and we were standing up outside of the front row for a bit longer than I would have liked, and I sort of had to make him go forward,” said Ford about the pacer’s manners early.
“It was probably a bit slow in time, but he did it very easily. With Neon on my outside, I wasn’t expecting much pressure.
“I gave him one flick on the (last) corner, and he put two lengths on them, and he went to the line on the bit,” explained the driver.
Ford said the Devonport Cup, which will be held in Launceston on 31 January, is the next aim for the entire.
“It is his main target, and the best thing about it is that he has had two runs in a row over a trip, and we can just coast along now for the next fortnight.
“Some of the horses he has defeated the past few weeks have been racing in open class company, and I reckon he would still be better off speed, and off a tempo.”
The win of Horatius Speculo concluded a double for Dylan, who partnered Goodtime Oscar ($2.70 fav) to victory in the opening race.
Dylan’s sister, Tarn, also drove a winner on the program, with Done Well ($6.50) providing her 100th career win, having recently entered her sixth season of race driving.
Both Goodtime Oscar and Done Well are trained by Tammy Langley, whose treble shared training honours at the meeting with Wayne Yole.
