Former Victorian Ben Yole joined elite company at Luxbet Park Hobart on Sunday night when he became only the fourth harness racing trainer in the code's history to prepare 100 winners in a season.
Yole celebrated the milestone when his five-year-old Lake Eyre ($18.70) powered home to win the Ian Blackburn Pace with his younger brother Mark Yole in the sulky.
Only Hall of Famers Wayne Rattray, his son Barrie Rattray and Neville Webberley are the others credited with having trained 100 winners.
Yole moved permanently to Tasmania about 10 years ago with the hope of resurrecting his training career after five years in his home state had produced only modest results.
"Training 100 winners is just an amazing result for us and it is certainly way more than we ever imagined we could get at the start of the season," Yole said.
"Halfway through the season I was rapt because the plan we had of turning the horses over once they met their mark and taking a punt to buy horses we thought would suit Tasmania, was starting to pay off.
"But achieving this has taken a team effort from a lot of dedicated people.
"My brothers Tim and Mark do a hell of a lot of work and my Dad (Wayne) is a huge help and then there's Tony McHenry who is there every day to help work the horses.
Yole transported 19 horses to last night's meeting and that has been a regular occurrence this season.
"It's a 15-hour day for everyone when we've got so many horses at a meeting and, to be honest, if I didn't have the personnel that I have at the stable it just wouldn't happen."
Lake Eyre settled in the back half of the field from his wide front-tow draw while stablemate Pushkin ($24) ensured a solid tempo when he raced to the lead 1400m from home with the odds-on favourite ($1.80) content to face the breeze.
When the pace slowed just over a lap from home Lake Eyre's driver Mark Yole sent his charge three wide to try for the lead but Ricky Duggan aboard the favourite wasn't about to surrender the "death".
Lake Eyre was three wide to the home straight but hit the front and then found the courage to stave off all challengers to on and defeat Followthewind by a metre with Pushkin hanging on for third.
Peter Staples