Trial watchers were looking for the bookie after the win of the Rohan Hillier-trained and driven Joe The Bookie in the Tasmanian Horse Transport 2YO PaceĀ in Hobart on Sunday night.
The Roll With Joe colt won his most recent trial at Carrick Park on 13 December, where he led before racing away from his rivals late to score hard held by 15 metres.
On Sunday, Hillier took the pacer straight to the lead from barrier five and dictated affairs in quarters of 29.1s, 32.3s, 30.5s before dashing away from his rivals in a 27.5s last quarter to score over Mayleejae Eagle and Magician by 18.4 metres.
Joe The Bookie is out of the Pacific Fella mare Gorgeous An Divine who won eight races, with Joe The Bookie being the third horse of racing age out of the mare, with all three finding the winners’ circle.
The win of Joe The Bookie was the first leg of a training and driving double for Hillier, who was in the winnerās circleĀ later in the nightĀ with former kiwi pacer Its Montana Jet.
The three-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere raced three-wide with cover for the final 1150 metres, and the pacer let down with a fast-finishing burst when Hillier let the pacer go out five wide at the top of the home straight to score by 6.3 metres in a mile rate of 2m 1.7s for the 2090-metre event.
Be Major Threat capped off an excellent weekend for Brighton trainer Tammy Langley when scoring a minor upset win in theĀ Tasmanian Equine Veterinary Services Free For All.
The Art Major gelding enjoyed a lovely run one-out and one-back before being produced with 450 metres to travel and went on to defeat Izaha and Isaac by 7.6 metres.
$1.24 favourite, Cool Water Paddy, finished sixth with stewards stating that a post-race veterinary report detected no apparent abnormalities.
The win of Be Major Threat was the fourth of the weekend for Langley, who prepared a treble in Burnie on Friday.
Ricky Duggan shared driving honours at the meeting with Rohan Hillier, Duggan driving Demand Respect and Rocknovertime to victory.
Leading trainer Ben Yole prepared Rocks Roy to victory in a rating 53 to 60 event, taking the trainers season total to 224 wins, which sees him one win clear of Queenslandās Grant Dixon on the Australian trainersā premiership.