Another mainland campaign underway

The powerful Tasmanian harness racing stable of Ben Yole has quickly hit form as another mainland mission is off and running.

Auckland Reactor-sired mare Coveffe Hustler scored at Warragul last Monday afternoon (May 23), providing Yole with his second winner from just six starters. Bay gelding Good Feelings, by Mr Feelgood, started the ball rolling earlier with a Yarra Valley win on May 6.

“We’ve only got three racing in Victoria at the moment, but there’s a few more that will be going over later this week,” Yole said.

“We’re heading into a quiet period in Tasmania, so it makes sense to campaign over there. In the next 10 weeks, I think there’s a total of 13 meetings here – some weeks have two meetings, but mostly it’s just one a week.

“It makes it pretty difficult to operate over the winter months. We’ve got a stack of low-rated horses and it’s hard to find races for them here.”

Yole said his three Victorian campaigners so far in Coveffe Hustler, Good Feelings and Heidi Go Seek (Mister Big) had recorded two wins, two second-placings, a third and a fourth.

“To be honest, we’ve just got too many low raters. So this presents as the perfect avenue to move some through. Hopefully they hit form and then they will be put up for sale,” he said.

“They drop down very quickly under the new ratings system, which is good for their longevity, and Victoria seems to cater for that class of horse very well.”

At the Hobart meeting on April 25, Yole registered his 100th winner for the season—the seventh consecutive time he’s achieved the impressive feat. This time he notched up the “ton” in the space of three months and a bit over three weeks into the 2022 season.

He went to Hobart with his trademark huge representation and in good form, having landed five winners the previous night at Launceston, and ticked over the milestone with a treble.

Yole has been domiciled in Tasmania for about 15 years, but spent his younger days under the tutelage of legendary Hamilton horseman Jim Barker.

“I learnt so much there and it was a great grounding,” Yole said.

“I later spent a bit of time with Bob Mahncke and then ended up with Kevin Brough and his son Adam.

“Those guys were all professional in their own ways. Adam was just an absolute perfectionist and I’d described him as the Shane Warne of harness racing in my eyes. He shifted to West Australia and he works on the wharves now.”

Yole said he was currently working out a main group of 10 horses from the stable to be shifted to the mainland in the next three to four weeks.

“I’ll look at probably eventually having about 16 campaigning. My brother Tim’s our stable foreman and he’ll go over shortly, with the team most likely to be based at Shepparton,” he said.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink