Ruby’s big harness racing win

On speed was the place to be in Launceston on Sunday night.

Letsgobro sat outside the harness racing leader in race 1. Later in the night, Kenya sat behind the leader, and Villacci sat in the one-one.

The remaining six winners led, including Ruby Baby (Bettors Delight), who took leading to a new level, in the Rare Earth Stakes for the mares with a national rating of 45 to 59.

Driven by Gareth Rattray, Ruby Baby ($6.50 into $3.80) was able to lead in a lead time of 42.3s, the third fastest of the night, and got fierce in the lead when she hit her own sulky wheels, which saw her run her first two quarters in 29.5s and 29.2s.

When she past the winning post at the bell, she was officially 75.4m in front.

That leading margin appeared to be further increased near the 800m.

The mare raced more tractable from 700m, running her last two quarters in 30.8s and 32.2s, yet her rivals were unable to run her down, scoring by 8.3m over Petrea Bromac ($3.20 fav) and Juniper ($5.00) in a mile rate of 2m 0.1s.

“She got a bit fired up, gave the wheel a flick, and Gareth (Rattray) did a good job to try and rate her from there,” said her trainer Ben Yole post-race.

“Obviously, they took ground off her late, but she got out to big margins, and it was an interesting race, that’s for sure.

“I was surprised by how big the margin was as they were only 29 seconds for the quarters, and it was interesting how no one really chased up to catch up too much,” the trainer explained.

The daughter of Bettors Delight finished fifth in Launceston last week, where her own Tasracing Calculated last-half mile was 56.36s,

“I was confident she would run a good race. She has been going well without much luck.

“She ran a good second first-up and then had a heart defibrillation and we have had to get her back from that.

“We will try and keep her in the mares races where we can, we will try and get her qualified from a stand as Burnie and those places will be her go as well,” said Yole

Yole ended the night with a training treble, winning the last two races with Kenya ($5) and Villacci ($7).

Baby You A Song justified her short quote leading all the way to take out the fast class race of the night, a rating 75 to 105 event.

Trainer-driver Rohan Hillier used the pole draw to lead on the $1.65 favourite, who scored by 2.1m in a mile rate of 1m 58.4s.

For complete race results, click here.

by Duncan Dornauf, for Tasracing