In-form pacer Art Huntsman ($7) continued his brilliant form, completing a winning hat-trick when taking out the Fehlbergs Produce Sprint Lane Pace (1609m) at Hobart’s Ladbrokes Park Elwick on Sunday afternoon.
The gelded son of Huntsville settled one-out and two-back from his second-row draw before driver Kayleb Williams let him down four-wide from the 500m, going on to score by 3m over Laid Back ($3.10 fav) and My Way ($6.50) in a mile rate of 1:57.8s.
Trainer Claire MacDonald said the pacer has been a bit of a project and she credits part-owner and former trainer Dick Eaves for his encouragement.
Eaves was one of the pacer’s original trainers.
“It’s been a big project for a lot of months to get to this point where we’ve got everything worked out. There were plenty of times when I was ready to give up or thought we should, and Dicky always had faith.
“Every week he seems to pull something out that challenges you, and you have to add to the regime. It takes a lot of hours to get him right, but it’s very rewarding,” said MacDonald.
“I think that was probably the most emotional I’ve ever been after a win today because Dicky said to me, ‘When you get him right, Claire, he’ll go bang.’ I thought, ‘You’ve got more confidence than me, Dick’, but he knew what he was like when he was right when he was young, and it’s paid off,” said the trainer.
Art Huntsman will now have a couple of weeks off before returning for a summer campaign.
Open-class pacer Horatius Speculo ($1.85 fav) made a winning racetrack return with a 9.5m win in the Smithawards Pace (2579m).
The victory was one of three on the program for trainer Tammy Langley, who also had success with Demon Destroyer ($5.50) and Lady In Line ($41).
Two-year-old Pogacar ($2.50) remains undefeated after two starts, with the Charlie Castles-trained and driven colt producing another fast-finishing sprint to claim the $20,000 TTC Life Members 2YO Graduate (1609m) in a time of 1:56.7s for the mile.
Iden Oliver ($5.50), driven by Grace Jones, took out the David Medhurst Memorial (2090m).
Jones has now partnered Iden Oliver four times for three wins.
The race honours the late David Medhurst, a talented Tasmanian trainer-driver who won the Youngbloods Challenge in 2008 and represented Tasmania in the Australasian Young Drivers Championship the following year. Medhurst died aged 26 in 2013.
Visiting Victorian driver Nathan Jack also tasted success on the card, partnering Away Game ($10) to victory.
Chris Howlett bookended the nine-race card with a training double, with I Gotta Go ($1.90 fav) taking out the opening event before Everything But The ($4.60) completed the double in the Typeface Pace (2090m).
Both winners were driven by Ethan Arnott.
Howlett and Arnott will combine again at Kilmore on Thursday night, where Shes Allaboutluv is engaged in a heat of the Vicbred Super Series for four-year-old mares, with Arnott booked to take the drive.
