Star Tasmanian three-year-old pacer Scooterwillrev kept his unbeaten record in Tasmania intact when he led throughout to win the harness racing $30,000 Cascade Draught Tasmanian Derby over 2579 metres at Luxbet Park Hobart yesterday.
Scooterwillrev ($2.20 into $1.95 favourite) went onto the race with 11 wins on home soil with his only two defeats coming in feature races in Victoria last season.
It was his seventh outing this time in and the Craig Hayes-trained gelding saved his best for the feature event.
Ace Victorian reinsman Gavin Lang took the drive and he made the winning move early in the race when he whipped around the field three-wide to momentarily sit outside of the leader before forging to the front.
Once in the lead the gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere settled well for Lang while the other well-backed commodity Usain Jolt ($4) was left to face the breeze but he was never travelling comfortably.
When Lang called on Scooterwillrev for the big effort in the home straight the gelding powered clear and went on to score by 11 metres from the Todd Rattray-trained Harjeet with Victorian Laredo Torpedo ($3.40) a half-head away third.
"This is a very sweet win for me and all the owners who have been enjoying a good ride leading up to this race but the way he delivered today I am so proud of him," Hayes said.
"I identified this horse as having above average ability early in his career but last season he was still very immature and even now he still has a lot to learn.
"We took him to Victoria for the Breeders Crown series and he ran fourth in his semi-final and had no luck in the final but the trip did him the world of good.
"He has come a long way this season and if everything pans out well then we might head back to Victoria for the 3YO Vicbred series."
Lang was full of praise for the gelding and suggested he would be very competitive if he ventured back to Victoria,
"This horse could run around in graded races and keep winning but he is god enough to go back to Victoria and mix it with the better ones in good races because he is an above average horse," Lang said.
"He's did it easy today and good horses don't appear to be running good times but that's because the just lengthen stride and this horse is a class act."
Peter Staples