Starting one of the shortest-priced favourites in Easter Cup history, Triedtotellya didn’t let his backers down when producing an all-the-way win in the Launceston Pacing Club’s flagship Group 3 race on Saturday night.
The Rohan Hillier-trained and driven pacer was sent out at $1.65. The five-year-old gelded son of Well Said stepped cleanly from the tapes to lead, and controlled the race in an 82.6s lead time, before running quarters of 29.9s, 29.4s, 28.5s, and 29.1s for a mile rate of 1:59.0s.
Triedtotellya scored by 8.4m over Eureka Jo ($8), with Hot Deal ($41) a further 1.1m away in third position.
“It was good to get away, really,” said Hillier post-race, with the pacer being on his toes a little in the pre-race standing start procedure compared to his heat run.
“He didn’t feel the same sort of horse. He felt a bit flat after last week, that is what I put it down to.
“I wanted to keep them bowling. Obviously, his opportunity was being off the front, and I wanted to keep the backmarkers off the bit, and once he jumped to the front, he was always going to be hard to beat.
Hillier had never shied away from believing the pacer would be more than competitive in the Easter Cup in the lead-up to stepping out for the first time in his stable on 30 March, where he ran a state record of 1:53.7s.
“He started working well the last five weeks at home, and this was the race that was on our doorstep.
“He gets over the ground unbelievably well. You feel like you are going so slow on him,” said Hillier, who believes the pacer is a better horse than his former stable star Ryley Major.
It was the second Easter Cup for Hillier, who trained and drove Rule Like A King to victory in 2015.
Triedtotellya has had several tendon injuries that have restricted him to 16 career starts.
Given his good record with injury-prone pacers, the Howlett family transferred the pacer to the Hillier stable earlier this year.
Hillier was in the winner’s circle earlier in the night, partnering three-year-old Mcwicked colt Mcmayhem to his maiden win in the $20,000 Allen Williams Memorial (2200m).
The Paul Ashwood-trained pacer raced outside the leader before proving too good for his rivals in 2:01.0s.
The other $20,000 feature was the Keith Stanley Debutante Stakes (1680m), won by the $31 outsider A Dragon For Joe, who recorded a half-head win over the $1.80 favourite Barber Shop in 1:58.1s.
A Dragon For Joe is owned and bred by John Huston, and is prepared by Brett Jaffray, with the win being the first leg of a driving double for Brodie Davis.
