Another Sweet Lou impresses

Nicely bred two-year-old Nyack made a winning debut at harness racing’s Launceston track on Sunday night, causing a minor upset in the 6ty Two Year Old.

Trainer-driver Todd Rattray kept the colt out of the early speed battle to settle behind the leader before the pacer showed a will to win late when finding clear room in the home straight to run down $1.45 favourite Cheeky Eagle by a half-neck in a mile rate of 2m 1.6s.

“He can put a rough one in every now and then, so I sort of drove him quiet, but I knew he had the ability to go good,” said trainer-driver Todd Rattray about the win.

“It was a good effort for what he has done. He only had one trial, so he will learn from it.

“He went a little bit rough on the corner as I was easing out and he just lost the back of Cheeky Eagle, but he always felt like he was going to pick him up in the straight,” explained Rattray.

The Sweet Lou colt is out of the Bettors Delight mare Benediction, which makes Nyack a full-brother to Kohannah, who has won nine races and is closing in on $100,000 in stakes earnings.

“I think this bloke is a little bit stronger than Kohannah at the same stage. He is a bit more of a horse than he was,” said Rattray when asked to compare the two at the same stage of their racing careers.

Rattray said he was undecided if he would aim Nyack at the $15,000 Debutante Stakes in Launceston on Easter Cup night, 16 April.

“I will see how he comes through the run. I want to give him a break soon, whether we do that now or wait for the Debutante, we will decide later in the week.

Dylan Ford produced a brilliant drive in the early stages of the Bevan Lee’s Butchery Pace to score on the Leigh Rand prepared Pardoe Plugga ($6).

From barrier two on the second-row Dylan was able to keep pushing through on the back of Gallifrey Direct, who he followed out, before taking up the lead near the 1800m.

Dylan’s plan paid off to score on the lightly raced gelded win of Western Edition by 6.4m over race favourite Itz Montana Jet.

It was one of two wins on the card for Dylan, who teamed up later in the night on the Steve Lukac-trained Kerala Star ($3.60 Fav) to score in race eight.

The Sunshine Beach gelding caused a false start and at the second attempt, ended up being the leader before working into the clear around the home bend to score by 6.7m.

It was Kerala Star’s third win at start five since arriving from New Zealand, and there appear to be many more wins in store on what he has shown in the state to date.

Dylan’s cousin Nathan Ford was given the driving responsibilities on Rackemup Tigerpie, who scored as the shortest price favourite of the night at $1.09 in the Dakin Refrigeration Free For All.

The seven-year-old gelding found the lead in the 2698m trip.

Although challenged during the first quarter of the final mile, the pacer was allowed to bowl along in the lead, running quarters of 30.3s, 29.8s, 27.9s and 28.4s, with the mile rate of 2m 0.3s only 1.2s outside the track record which Blue Pointer holds from December 2014.

Many horses out of the race will be aimed at the $100,000 Group 1 Ladbrokes Easter Cup, with the heats scheduled for 10 April.

Another pacer who got close to the track record was the Conor Crook-trained and driven Joe Nien ($2.10 fav), who recorded a mile rate of 1m 56.9 for 2200m, just 0.3s outside Scooterwillrev’s track record that he set in July 2018.

By Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing