Magician casts some mile magic

Talented Tasmanian pacer Magician (Sweet Lou) ($2.70 fav) recorded his first win since the $80,000 Beautide last August when scoring in the $20,000 Ladbrokes Launceston Mile (1680m) on Sunday night.

Trainer-driver Todd Rattray wasted no time pushing forward from his second-row draw to race outside the leader for the final 1100m of the race.

The pacer proved too good for stablemate Nyack ($4.40) by a short half-head, with Miss Papenhuyzen ($18) a further half-neck away third in a mile rate of 1:56.9s.

“He obviously had to do a bit of work to get to the breeze, but he settled well when we got there.

“I didn’t think I would get in front of Mickey Oh, but one came back on him (at the start), and I thought that was my chance to go forward, and they sort of didn’t run that hard early.

It was the first win over the sprint trip for the Sweet Lou gelding, which finished fourth in the TAB Eureka at Menangle last September and was spelled soon after.

He had eight starts at Menangle over the summer, with Sunday’s race his second start back in the state, and Rattray acknowledged the trip away had done the pacer well.

“He feels like he is more switched on.

“He will probably go back to Sydney. We will just see what happens,” he said.

Rattray was also impressed with Nyack’s run.

“We were really happy with him, especially coming three-wide at the bell.

“I think he will only get better. The Raider Stakes and Beautide are his two main aims,” the trainer said.

Rattray was on the winners list earlier in the night in the first heat of the Trainers Encouragement Series when driving the Peter Dornauf-trained Jilliby Mendoza ($2.70) to victory. While $1.28 favourite Moneys No Issue won the second heat.

A further two heats are programmed for Hobart on Sunday before the $30,000 Final on 26 May in Launceston.

For complete race results, click here.

by Duncan Dornauf, for Tasracing