10-year-old gelding The Shallows will be looking to find his way into another Tasmania Cup Final when he lines up in the second and final heat in Hobart on Friday night.
The Heath Woods-trained pacer is contesting his sixth Tasmania Cup series, having previously made the final on four occasions, including the pacer’s biggest win in 2021 in one of the most controversial runs of the Tasmania Cup when the original winner was disqualified following an investigation into “grievous violations” of the harness racing rules a month after the race.
The win is one of many Tasmanian feature races for the pacer that has won over $330,000, a big effort for a horse the Woods family bought unsighted as an unbroken two-year-old, that was advertised online for close to six weeks.
The Shallows finished eighth in last week’s heat behind Triedtotellya, where his own last half mile of 55.91s was the fourth fastest of the race, with the Shadyshark Hanover gelding only 1.3m off qualifying for next week’s $150,000 final.
“He is evergreen and still going alright, and he is enjoying his racing and work,” said Woods.
“His run in the Devonport Cup (held in Launceston) after making a mistake was pretty good, he lost a heap of ground at the start and he only got beat 12m, and his run in last weeks heat was good too, just the way the race was run, he got held up a bit and when he got clear the race was over.
“You sort of think the longer races will turn into a staying test, but quite often (in Tasmania) they turn into a bit of a walk.
“If he does qualify, it will be nice to get a good draw, most of the other feature races are drawn on prize money and then he’s out the back, or his off big handicaps and chasing all the way. But if he can draw to lob in the first half a dozen, it will make it a bit easier for him.”
Brodie Davis will continue his association with The Shallows, while Woods will partner stablemate Custom Harley, a five-year-old gelding who has won eight of his 28 starts.
“He is still learning, and he hasn’t had much luck with barrier draws, and I probably didn’t drive him that well last week either.
“He will get there. We are still figuring out how to drive him in this grade,” said the trainer-driver.
The first six placegetters in the second heat qualify for the $150,000 Final on 28 February, where Triedtotellya is the one to beat after his domination of Tasmanian harness racing over the past 15 months.
“It worked out, he got a nice draw (in his heat), and he can draw anywhere (in the final), and he is still going to be very hard to beat. He looks a level above the rest of them at the moment,” said Woods about the pre-post final favourite.
Friday’s Tasmania Cup Heat kicks off the program at 17:38 to take advantage of a Sky Racing 1 opportunity, with the last six races to be shown on Sky Racing 2.
