Lightly raced gelding James In Charge will be looking to put some unlucky efforts in the heat and final of the Tassie Golden Apple behind him, when he drops back to a restricted win grade in Launceston on Friday night.
James In Charge, a lightly raced six-year-old gelding from the stable of visiting Victorian trainer Dean Braun, has won four of his 12 starts and has drawn the pole in a no more than six lifetime win event over 2200m.
Stewards reported that he broke after contacting the sulky wheel of another runner on the home turn in the Group 3 Golden Apple final where he was sent out as a $4 chance after racing behind the leader.
The previous start was when he was first up from a spell in the heat, galloping out in the standing start event and ending up racing outside the leader when only 4.8m from the winner.
The six-year-old Hes Watching gelding has won four of his 12 starts.
Rohan Hillier has been booked for Friday’s drive and has had four drives on the pacer for two wins.
Hillier is set to claim his first Tasmanian drivers’ title, having a 36-win lead over Dylan Ford in the final month of the season.
Most Tasmanian premierships are clear-cut, with Wayne Yole (trainer), Tiarna Ford (female driver) and Tammy Langley (female trainer) all leading their respective premierships by considerable margins.
The tightly contested premiership to watch until the end of the season is the junior driver’s title, where Brodie Davis has a three-win lead over Mitch Ford.
Meanwhile, there is strong Tasmanian interest in Saturday night’s final round of heats of the Inter Dominion at Menangle in Sydney’s south-west.
Tasmanian-owned pacer Max Delight is currently 9th on the points table after the second round of heats were held at Bathurst on Wednesday night.
Mach Dan, part-owned by Tasmanian interests, is currently 16th, while Magician and Nyack, who ran in the top five on Wednesday night, are in 21st and 22nd place, respectively.
The top 12 on the points table qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday week.
