Agouda Ruler15 Oct 2021
Last year's Dandy Patch Final winner, Agouda Ruler, bounced back into the winner's list for the first time this season, with a dominant win in the Find Us On Facebook Pace in Launceston on Friday night.
From inside of the second-row, reinsman Gareth Rattray elected to drive for luck and ended up three-back the marker pegs before weaving his way through the field to find clear racing room out three and four wide from the 600m to run away with the prize by 7.9m over Guys Bettor Bet in 1m 58.8s for the 2200m trip.
“It's good to get him back on the winner's list,” said trainer John Castles after the race.
“It was an honestly run race tonight, and that’s why he is here, as at home he is very lazy, and I have nothing really at home to work him with,” Castles explained.
Agouda Ruler was unplaced in three runs earlier this season, when he jumped from age racing into the national rating system before running a brave second first up on 10 October in a three-year-old event.
“I planed on getting a few runs into him before the Globe Derby,” the Wesley Vale based trainer said.
Heats of the Globe Derby will be held in Launceston on 7 November before the $50,000 Final on 21 November.
Earlier in the night, the Christian Salter owned and trained Ifbutzandmaybes recorded his fourth win of the season in a rating 43 to 49 event over 2200m.
“Im really happy, considering he had to run out of the gate, he normally hasn’t got a lot of gate speed, and he gets back in the field bit, but he stuck at it pretty good tonight,” Salter said.
“He only cost a couple of hundred dollars, and he has won four for me now, but he is not a horse you would want to pay up for, I just poke around with him, and he has been good for me” added the owner-trainer.
The Kyle Pratten trained Lets Save The Day delivered a rough result when he was able to sneak right through along the inside from three-back the pegs with the magic hands of Rohan Hadley in the sulky, saving every inch of ground on the $81 outside to score by a head over Kuyomi.
Kyle Pratten was booked for the drive but had to be replaced by Hadley due to a leg injury, and Pratten was wrapped with the result.
“I am very, very surprised,” said Pratten straight after the race.
“He is a very one-paced horse. He doesn’t have a sprint on him, so when they get home in 28s he has got no hope,” added the winning trainer.
Pratten was full of praise for the drive by Rohan Hadley.
The meeting was marred by a fall in race five when drivers Jordan Chibnall (Lifes A Jungle) and Rohan Hadley (Brighton Prince) were dislodged from their sulkies.
Rohan Hadley escaped serious injury and drove later in the night while Jordan Chibnall was transported to the Launceston General Hospital by Medical Edge staff later in the night for further examination.
Brighton Prince was quickly captured by a clerk of the course while Lifes A Jungle was captured by track staff, with both horses escaping serious injuries.
With Southern Tasmania currently in a three-day snap lockdown, the meeting scheduled for Hobart on Sunday night has been moved to Wednesday evening with the Group 2 Dandy Patch and Evicus Finals the features, start times are yet to be confirmed at the time of writing.
Trials will still be held at Carrick Park on Monday from 5:30pm without participation from those currently in lockdown.
