Harness racing trainer Colin DeFilippi edged closer to 2000 winners when Izmok won easily at Addington last night.
Izmok (Muscles Yankee – Belle Galleon) is a half-brother to brilliant trotter Stent who won thirty races for DeFilippi and owner Trevor Casey.
Last night Izmok had a good sit on the outer and finished best when produced wide in the straight. He trotted the mobile 1950m race in a mile rate of 2-04.6 with closing splits of 61.7 and 30.7.
Colin was confident Izmok would go a good race but said before the race, "he has missed some work because of the weather and was no certainty but he should go a nice race all the same".
DeFilippi is now sitting on 1999 wins after the win of Izmok and will surely reach the milestone of 2000 in the coming weeks if Izmok can carry on his winning way.
Eden Franco put up a good stayers run later in the evening when winning for trainer Steven McRae.
Driven by Craig Thornley, Eden Franco (Christian Cullen – Elisit Franco) led from the start and set up a torrid tempo in front. She was attacked by Sheree Tomlinson on Bet On A Rascal for the last 1000m but staved that horse off and went on to win in a quick 2-00.0 mile rate for the 2600m stand.
The overall time was for the race was 3-14.0 with a closing 800m in 57.9 and 400m in 29.5 seconds
Leigh Major caused a major headache for the TAB bookmakers when she pulled off a betting coup in the junior drivers mares race.
Stephen Richardson from the TAB advised Harnesslink that Leigh Major had opened at $43.00 on the fixed odds win market the night before and there had been steady and late money for her right up until the race started.
Leigh Major closed at $10.00 on the final field win market and came from outside the second line to win narrowly by a nose beating another S.McRae trained runner in Tara Tutaia.
Earlier in the night Black Art also had the punters cheering, dropping in from an opening quote of $6.00 the night before to close a clear favourite at $2.70 on the fixed odds win market.
John Dunn the driver off Black Art had to survive an enquiry for possible breach of the push out rule with 1600m to go, but survived and gave young trainer Andrew Fitzgerald his first training win.
IZMOK winning at Addington
Harnesslink Media