A look at the 2024 Beautide contenders

There is much more than the $40,000 first-place prize money on the line in Saturday night’s Beautide (2090m) in Hobart, with the harness racing winner also collecting Tasracing’s slot in the $2.1m TAB Eureka at Menangle in Sydney’s southwest on 7 September.

Nine runners will be eyeing Tasracing’s slot at 20:59 on Saturday evening.

If you can’t make it trackside, you can catch the entire action on TasracingTV and across the Sky Racing Network.

1. Smooth Machete (Ultimate Machete)
Trainer: Mark Reggett
Driver: Dylan Ford
He was crowned the Tasmanian Two-Year-Old Colt & Gelding Of The Year last season, with his biggest win coming in the Dandy Patch (2YO C&G Tasbred Final). He has been among the top three placings in four of five this season, and last start, he ran third in the Beautide 3YO Prelude, where he raced outside the leader and was out-sprinted late on a rain-affected track. He races well in Hobart and gets his best draw for some time.

2. Fighter Command (Aways B Miki)
Trainer: Jess Tubbs
Driver: Greg Sugars
The Tasbred pacer returns to the state to race for the first time. He has won seven of his 10 career starts and has three wins from three starts in this preparation. At his first-up win at Melton on 27 June, he broke in the score up and was placed out of the draw. Second-up he broke the 2080m track record at Cranbourne on 14 July, where he rated 1:55.6s. He was a Melton winner last Friday in 1:54.8s but did gallop on the first turn.

3. Custom Harley (A Rocknroll Dance)
Trainer: Heath Woods
Driver: Heath Woods
He has won three of his six starts this season. His most recent win came in a rating 57 to 66 event in Hobart, a track where five of his six wins have been. This will be an excellent guide to see how he will measure up in races such as the Tasmanian Derby and the Globe Derby (3YO C&G Tasbred Final). But the Heath Woods stable can’t be discounted in feature races, winning the Tasmania and Easter Cups in recent years with The Shallows at long odds.

4. Reely Nauti (Captaintreacherous)
Trainer: Paul Hill
Driver: Mark Yole
Last season’s Tasmanian Three-Year-Old Filly of the Year quickly rose through the rating system, winning five races in her first two seasons of racing. Trainer Paul Hill has elected to give the mare time to target races in her own age group in the back half of the season, including her last start in the Granny Smith (4YO Mares Tasbred Final), where she overraced leading up the one-wide line, finishing fourth. She drops in distance and returns to her favourite track.

5. Iylac Pakaria (Betting Line)
Trainer: Tammy Langley
Driver: Mitch Ford
Nice mare who has won seven races, including the Evicus (2YO Fillies Tasbred Final) and Bandbox (3YO Fillies Tasbred Final) at Group 3 level, but is yet to win this season. She ran her best race for the term when recording the quickest last-half on the Tasracing Calculated Sectionals of the race last start, Granny Smith (4YO Mares Tasbred Final), at her most recent outing in Launceston, a track where the winner has been in the top four positions at the bell in 19 of the last 20 races.

6. Dukes Choice (Vincent)
Trainer: Samantha Gangell
Driver: Liam Older
The winner of seven races returns to Tasmania and may be the forgotten horse in early markets after racing competitively at the metropolitan level in Victoria, including a win at Melton three starts ago in 1:53.8s, the same mile rate Fighter Command won last start. Connections elected to miss the recent Raider Stakes (4YO E&G Tasbred Final) and concentrate on this race. He was only 7m behind Nyack when they last clashed in the Globe Derby (3YO C&G Tasbred Final) last year.

7. De Goey (Captaintreacherous)
Trainer: Rohan Hadley
Driver: Rohan Hadley
He finished third in last year’s race and has won seven of his 15 career starts, with his most recent win coming two starts ago in the heat of the Raider Stakes, where he led all the way and dashed home in a 58.1s last half-mile. His manners let him down in the final, where he broke on the first turn and got down quickly to settle at the tail, with his Tasracing Calculated Sectionals recording his last half-mile in quarters of 26.79s and 28.41s.

8. Nyack (Sweet Lou)
Trainer: Todd Rattray
Driver: Todd Rattray
He has won eight races in 13 starts since running fifth in last year’s race. His most recent win came in the 2698m Raider Stakes (4YO E&G Tasbred Final), where he led and dashed home in 56.5s on a rain-affected track. He is a stablemate of last year’s winner, Magician, so how do they compare? We only have to go back to May, where Nyack was runner-up to Magician in two Free For All races, defeated 0.1m and 5.9m in those two starts.

9. Nancestiger (Sweet Lou)
Trainer: John Castles
Driver: Charlie Castles
He has been placed in all four races this season, including a third to Nyack in the Raider Stakes (4YO E&G Tasbred Final) last start, where he raced first over. He has always been just behind some nice horses in feature races, with the only time he has missed a place in his 14 starts being a fourth placing in last year’s Tasmanian Derby. His trainer, John Castles, has a 70.91% strike rate of his runners finishing in the top three placings this season, the highest of any Tasmanian trainer with a minimum of 20 starters.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Duncan Dornauf, for Tasracing