Magician goes one better in 4YO Final

Magician (Sweet Lou) and Joe The Bookie battled out the Tas Freight Raider Stakes Prelude, and two weeks later in Hobart on Sunday night, they battled out the Group 3 harness racing final.

In a similar scenario to the Prelude, Magician was able to lead (at the mile), with Joe The Bookie forced to sit parked for the final 1200m in the 2090m event.

Magician ($1.12 fav) had to be reminded of the job at hand by his driver and trainer Todd Rattray at various stages of the race before running away to score by 6.9m over Joe The Bookie ($9.50) and the winner’s stablemate, Maebee ($9).

“He will have to learn to go in front, other than that, he was pretty good,” said Rattray post-race.

“He needs a horse right outside him to keep concentrating.

“He was hitting the line pretty good, I know it didn’t look like it, but I knew he had heaps left,” the trainer-driver added.

The gelding was runner-up in last year’s three-year-old Globe Derby final behind Mickey Oh.

Magician was bred by Barry Stewart and raced by him in partnership with Todd’s mother Denise, and is by Sweet Lou from Kyleasha, who is a relation to Hexus, who contested several Group 1 races.

The $80,000 Beautide is the next aim for the gelding.

“That’s his aim, and we will see how he goes in that,” Rattray said.

Another prospect for the $80,000 Beautide is Karalta Artemis ($7.00), who scored in a $20,000 3YO event.

Driven by Todd’s brother Gareth, and trained by their uncle Kent, he was able to lead all the way to record a half-neck win over De Goey ($1.70 fav) and Nyack ($3.40)

“He finally put it together tonight,” said Gareth post-race.

“My plan was to press forward, I didn’t expect Moth Hunter to cross De Goey, but once she did that, I was confident to press on and find the front.

“We got a good second-quarter and was able to kick through on the corner and hold them off late,” the winning driver added.

The winner of The Beautide on 5 August in Hobart will secure the Tasracing slot in the $2.1 mill Tab Eureka at Menangle on 2 September.

Nominations for The Beautide open on 17 July and will close at the earlier than normal time on 31 July at 9:30 am.

For complete race results, click here.

by Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing