Tassie Cup winner retired

This year’s harness racing Tasmania Cup winner Gotta Good Reason has been retired.

Connections gave consideration to retiring the pacer after that Group 1 win in March but pressed on for a tilt at the Easter Cup in April, where he finished down the track in the final and trainer-driver Mark Yole has subsequently decided to call time on the pacer’s racing career.

“His performance in the Easter Cup was below par, and we thought that maybe he was starting to feel his joints. He has certainly done an outstanding job and we didn’t want him making up the numbers, so we thought it was best that we retire him,” explained Yole.

Looking back on the pacer’s win in the Group 1 Tasmania Cup, which was the state’s first Group 1 race in a decade, it’s still hard for him to describe what was a career highlight for Yole.

“I’m still lost for words and so humbled to have won such a prestigious race.

“A couple of weeks after the race, I watched a video online where John Justice talked about Shakamaker and how they flew down to win the race in the early 2000s, so to win a race associated with horses like that is unbelievable,” explained the trainer-driver.

Yole secured Gotta Good Reason after meeting Luke McCarthy at a race meeting in country Victoria. He ended up sending Yole a text message of several pacers for sale, with Yole recommending to his wife Danica and loyal stable supporters Murray Johnstone and Micheal Keating.

The gelded son of For A Reason hit the ground running for Yole, winning the Dash For Cash in Devonport in February 2020, before announcing himself on Tasmania’s main stage when scoring in the 2021 Danbury Park Cup, when having his first start for trainer Mark Reggett.

“About six weeks before he won the Danbury Park Cup, I said to Mark Reggett in conversation that I knew there was more in this horse and that I wasn’t getting it out of him, and he said that he was happy to have a go with him, so I thought why not give him a change of environment.

“When he first came down I couldn’t believe how athletic he was, and then it wasn’t until Mark Reggett suggested that I was looking at him the wrong way and suggested that he was a stayer, we started to drive him that way, and he went to another level down here,” recalled Yole.

The pacer went on to win the Group 3 Tassie Golden Apple in December, which gave connections the belief to press on to the Tasmania Cup after the pacer returned to Yole’s care after finishing fourth in the St Marys Cup.

“Mark (Reggett) felt with his Golden Apple win, and after his effort in the St Marys Cup, that he may have been handicapped out of a few races, so he returned to my stable.

Reggett also prepared the pacer for his Tasmania Cup heat win, while Yole was isolated due to covid protocols.

Gotta Good Reason remains in Yole’s Carrick based stable while a suitable retirement option is found for the gelding that Yole said has changed his life.

By Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing