Fresh off driving his first double in Hobart on 16 June, driver Jack Watson hopes that form can continue on Sunday night’s nine-race card in Hobart.
Vincenzo and Jack James, both trained by Watson’s mother, Juanita McKenzie, were the two horses that he drove to victory, and he will drive both horses again this week.
Vincenzo, a three-year-old gelded son of Vincent, has won four of his 15 starts, and he has seven minor placings to his credit. He has returned to the form that he produced as a two-year-old last season in recent starts. However, the driver explained there had been some excuses.
“His first couple of runs back, he was probably a bit underdone and a little bit crook. He had a bit of a freshen-up and has come back really good, so hopefully, he can keep pushing forward,” Watson said.
At his last start, the gelding showed good gate speed in an up to four-lifetime win race, settling on the back of the leader before using the sprint lane to score by 5.6m.
“Some of those horses were highly rated, but he is in that class now, so he has to keep racing them. We will try to space his runs every fortnight and prepare him for the bigger three-year-old races.
Watson gives the pacer another strong chance in Sunday’s Tasmanian Horse Transport Pace (1609m), which kicks off the Hobart card.
“Swimintheriver goes well, and he has gate speed as well. Being a mile, I think it will come out hard, and we will come out hard as well and see what happens,” Watson said.
Jack James in the Cavalor Equicare Pace (1609m) is Watson’s other drive, with the pacer recording an overdue win last start.
“It was really good for Mum. She bred him, but he hadn’t won for a fair while, and we had been thinking about retiring him, so it was great to get a win with him.
“He has dropped a lot in class compared to what he used to race in a couple of years ago, so hopefully, he can get a couple of cheques now he is down in that class,” Watson said.
Sunday’s card will be shown on Sky Racing 1 and TasracingTV from 16:53.
