Missin Rock registers first win of the season

It is hard to believe that three-year-old filly Missin Rock hadn’t won a race in 10 starts this season until Sunday night’s victory in Hobart.

The daughter of Pet Rock had registered five placings for the season including a second in the Three-Year-Old Fillies Championship and the Group 3 Tasmanian Oaks.

On Sunday the Eric Jacobson-trained pacer was sent out as the $1.75 favourite in the Tasmanian Equine Veterinary Services Pace, and the filly didn’t let favourite punters down leading all the way to score by 3.5-metres over Shady Story with Gauci a further 12.5-metres away third in a mile rate of 2m 1.6s for the 2090-metre trip.

“She had a good run behind Watchmylips last start and was hitting the line well, and I thought she would go close tonight,” said Eric Jacobson after the race.

The filly has been noted to pull in her races but relaxed well in front for her driver Troy McDonald.

“Troy got off her tonight and said she was like a professional tonight,” said the winning trainer.

“She has got a bit of gate speed, and that gets her out of trouble, that’s what I like about her,” added Jacobson who has taken a step back from the large number of horses that he once trained.

The filly takes another four rating points with the win which is going to cause some headaches for Jacobson.

“She is rated 58 now, and it is going to be very hard to place her,” he said.

One race on the radar is the Group 2 Bandbox with the heats of that race scheduled for 1 November in Launceston.

“I will probably give her one more start and see what happens and worry about those big races as they come,” the trainer said.

Ricky Duggan was the standout driver of the Hobart card with a treble.

He drove the Paul Hill-trained Rocknroll Nitro to victory in the two-year-old event, before driving Still Hungover and Full Speed Ahead to success.

The win of Full Speed Ahead capped off a massive weekend for trainer Marc Butler who also put the polish on Raymonds Judge who scored earlier in the night to give the trainer four winners for the weekend.

Taylor Ford is another in-form driver, and she scored with Big Bang Raj, who she also trains, in the third event.

Jocund scored in a rating 52 to 54 event for trainer-driver Todd Rattray, which continued a good weekend for the Rattray family after the win of Ignatius at Menangle on Saturday night.

While Paul Williams was back in the winners stall with Debt Till We Part who scored his first win since February 2018 in the Nutrien Ag Supplies Sprint Lane Pace.

Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing