Riverside trainer Brian Stanley was a man of relief when Captaintreacherous gelding More Than This ($2.90) won his first race since May 2023, scoring in the Prydes Easifeed Pace (2090m) in Hobart on Sunday afternoon.
From barrier six, the four-year-old gelding raced outside the leader and ran away from his rivals over the final 200m to score by 13m over Keayang Kevin ($6.50) and A Shadow Of Doubt ($19) in 1:58.6s.
“He has his fair share of problems, so getting another win with him was good. It just means I am managing them well,” Stanley said after the race.
“Mitch (Ford, driver) kept him running even time pretty much which suited him.
“He hasn’t got a lot of ability, and a few issues, one of them is he doesn’t have a lot of acceleration, so sometimes he has to do it hard up in the death, or wherever, as he is a bit one-paced,” added the trainer.
Stanley owns and bred the pacer with his wife, Barbara.
The gelding is the end of a 40-year bloodline that he has raced with great success.
Stanley was still determining where he would start the pacer next.
“I have got to sort through the race programs and try to find suitable ones for him. It’s a bit hard over the next six weeks as he is a horse that needs a driver that understands him.
The win was the first leg of a driving treble for Ford, who also won with the Wayne Yole-trained Remember Me Now ($2.10 fav) and Yareckon Im Sweet ($13).
That duo was the last two legs of a training treble Yole prepared, with Keayang Fitzy ($2.50) winning earlier in the day in the 2579m Discretionary by 4m, where he outran his rivals in a 55.3s last half mile at the end of 2579m.
Favourite punters ended the meeting on a winning note when Triedtotellya ($1.22 fav) won his fifth race on end, in a mile rate of 1:57.3s for 2090m, the quickest winning mile rate of the eight-race card.
