Can Neville’s Ideal winning run continue?

While he may be retired, Carrick harness racing trainer Neville Rattray says he has never been busier since returning to the training game.

Rattray trained and drove in the late 1980s before having a short stint at training in the thoroughbred code in the late 1990s.

After retiring from the corporate sector in the back half of 2021, Rattray moved to Carrick, and given his proximity to the Carrick track, he decided to get back involved in the sport and is enjoying his return, and why wouldn’t he? As he currently has an 18% winning strike rate this season, with four winners.

Two of those wins have come this month with Ideal Karalta, who will be looking to complete a winning hat-trick in Launceston on Friday night.

“I’m really rapt with how he is going.

“At the end of March, he wasn’t going to well and we were going to retire him, but I took him down to the vets as he is always going sore. The vets found an issue with him, and he is going and feeling better since,” said Rattray.

The pacers’ two wins have been tough efforts, with his driver Gareth Rattray pressing on to find the spot outside the leader on both occasions.

“He hadn’t been finding the finish line for us but when he gets back in the field, he sort of loses interest, so we decided about 12 months ago that we would go up there and see what he would do, and that’s where he has probably raced his best, up outside there grinding away,” explained the trainer.

In the pacers’ most recent win, he recorded a mile rate of 1m 57.8s, a new winning PB for the gelded son of American Ideal.

From barrier four on Friday, Neville is expecting the pacer to perform well again.

“This will give us our chance to go forward and see how the race plays out.

“I don’t think it is any harder than last week. He has got to get the journey. I don’t see why he won’t get it,” said Neville.

Neville has three horses in work, including Alberio, who will have his first try at a standing start event in the fourth race.

“I probably haven’t placed him that well.

“All his racing in New South Wales had been over 1600-1700 metres.

“Johnny Walters qualified him from a stand last Saturday morning (at the Carrick trials).

“I’m probably looking at later in the year with him when we get back to Burnie and place him in some standing starts,” said the trainer and part-owner.