Kent Rattray and John Walters combined to pull off one the of the biggest upsets in Tasmanian harness racing history in the $40,000 Tasracing Evicus Final on Friday night in Hobart.
Karalta Moondance was sent out the despised outsider at $101 with betting agencies in the Group 3 Two-Year-Old Fillies Classic, but she was nowhere near that price in the eyes of her trainer and driver.
“She has always shown gate speed but we’ve been trying to teach her to settle in her races but John said to me when the draw came out and she drew five, if ever there was a chance to use her early toe then the Final over 1609-metres was the time,” said Kent.
“She came out humming with the favourite Spoilt Sport and John eased in behind the speed and had the perfect sit on the front-runner.”
The Rodney Ashwood-trained and driven Spoilt Sport was the heavily supported favourite at $1.70 after winning the Preludes to both the Elderslie Horse Care And Spelling Sweepstakes and the Tasracing Evicus.
The Sportswriter-Tara Lassie filly set a cracking pace recording a first split of 27.8 seconds before steadying the ship with a 31.3 second quarter, Rod opened up the field again with a 28.9 second dash down the backstretch and with the second elect Enterprising Milly struggling to stay with her back in third place Spoilt Sport looked set for victory.
However, Rattray and Walters and their gutsy filly had other ideas.
“Coming off the back Karalta Moondance was sticking on gamely and I thought we are going to run money which would have been a great result and then as they approached the turn I’m thinking we’re a chance here and sure enough she really knuckled down to the task in the straight and ran over the top of the favourite,” said a delighted trainer.
“John drove her an absolute treat, he assessed the race to perfection during the week, formed his tactics and then stuck to his guns come race night.”
“John and I have won a Group 3 now for the last three years, Riverboat Jasper won the Easter Cup in 2016, Timely Sovereign won the Raider Stakes in 2017 and now Karalta Moondance has taken out the Evicus.”
At the start of the two-year-old season, Kent was quietly confident he could capture one of the Classics this year but not the one that fell his way last night.
“We had Sunny Sanz win three from three earlier in the year but unfortunately he did a suspensory in the week leading up to the Sweepstakes Series, he’s at home and has one more shock-wave treatment to go and then he will be off to the Bennett’s property at Ringarooma for a long spell, we think he’s pretty special so we will give him every chance to prove that later in his career,” said Kent.
“Coming home from Hobart on Friday night I was thinking back to the drive home in 2008 when Dad was still training and we had won both the Evicus and Dandy Patch with Karalta Crown and Cody Maverick and I said to my daughter make sure you remember tonight as we won’t have a night like this again,” said a reflective Kent.
“As it turned out we didn’t last night but I couldn’t help but think what may have been, but that’s racing and Roger (Whitmore) richly deserved his win with Resurgent Storm in the Dandy Patch, he’s a top little horse and is unbeaten so he’s done a great job with him.”
Shane Yates