Shelby Bromac bounced back from a fourth placing in his cup heat to claim the $75000 Tasmanian Cup final while Max Delight strolled to an effortless win in the $30000 Tasmanian Derby.
The wins came after recent feature race wins by the Aiken trained trotter Big Jack Hammer the previous week in the $100000 Grand Prix at Melton and Max Delight in the $200000 NSW Derby the week before that.
Driven by Kima Frenning, Shelby Bromac broke for a few strides before hitting his straps and working to the front in the Tasmanian Cup after about 600m of the 2079m marathon.
He was then able to hold off fellow Victorian War Dan in the run to the judge to win by 1.7m.
The two favourites, Sicario and Scooterwillrev, both missed the start and took virtually no part in the race while co-backmarker Harjeet faded after a torrid run.
Shelby Bromac had been unbeaten in Australia until he missed a place in his Tasmania Cup heat in a performance Frenning said left her and connections ‘‘scratching our heads’’.
‘‘We made a few gear changes and, because he didn’t pace great last week, I drove him aggressively tonight to find the fence,’’ she said.
A Bettors Delight five-year-old, Shelby Bromac has now won five of his six starts for the Aiken-Frenning combination since being purchased from New Zealand by the Stokie Racing Group, great supporters of the Aiken stable.
The Tasmanian Derby proved a walk in the park for the long odds on favourite Max Delight.
An upset winner of the NSW Derby at his previous start, the three-year-old went straight to the front and cruised to the line more than 20m clear of his nearest rival in sub two-minute mile rate time for the 2579m trip.
NSW reinsman Todd McCarthy, who partnered Max Delight to win the NSW Derby, was in the sulky again.
Another of the features at the Tasmanian Cup meeting, the time-honoured George Johnson Sprint for pacing mares, was won by the former David Jack trained Call Me Julie, which has been trained in Tasmania for the past years.
— With Launceston Examiner