It was an easy watch for favourite punters, as the Emma Stewart and Allan McDonough combination claimed both the Cavalor Equicare Tasmanian Derby and Cavalor Equicare Tasmanian Oaks in Hobart on Tuesday night.
Both races were part of a six-race card that was postponed from Sunday night.
Beach Diamond ($1.65) made the most of her pole draw in the Cavalor Equicare Tasmanian Oaks (2090m) to lead and dictate affairs to score by 7.6m over her stablemate Let Her Roll ($2.10), who made a mid-race move to race outside the leader for the final 1200m, with The Bride ($21) a further 22.0m away third.
“She is one-paced, but she just keeps trying,” said McDonough post-race.
“She will head to Perth now for the Oaks over there for her next assignment.”
The $150,000 WA Oaks is scheduled for 3 October at Gloucester Park.
The mile rate of 1:56.5 set a new three-year-old fillies track record, breaking the previous mark of 1:56.9 set by Barbary Tales last month.
The win was the second Tasmanian Oaks success for both trainer and driver.
In the Cavalor Equicare Tasmanian Derby (2579m), Stewart and McDonough combined with Captaintreacherous colt Captain Perfect ($1.16 fav), who led the four-horse field to score by 13.9m over Coniston ($5) and Zeus Immortal ($16) in 2:00.1.
“He is a big lazy bugger. When I saw 31.5 (seconds) come up for the first quarter, I thought the boss would be screaming at me, as he is one of those horses that can keep bowling 29 quarters.
“He is a good horse with a good gait and a good attitude,” the winning driver said.
The win was the fourth Tasmanian Derby for the Stewart stable, and the fourth for McDonough, with one of his wins being as a trainer in 2008 with Im Mark Antony.
Other highlights on the postponed meeting were the win of Iamahunter ($4.60) in the David Medhust Memorial (2090m), the Jacob Duggan-trained gelding was driven by Kayleb Williams.
Open Class pacer Star Major ($1.70 fav) proved too strong for his rivals to win the Smithawards Free For All (2090m) for trainer-driver Todd Rattray.
