Queensland Harness Racing Wrap - August 7

Catch up on the week's harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.

THE GOOD

After sitting out the 2022 season, the itch to drive in races needed scratching and Kylie Rasmussen made a low-key return to race driving earlier this year.

Quickly bouncing back to what she does best, Kylie claimed her first win of 2023 when guiding the recently retired Cat King Cole to victory on May 6 in Saturday night company.

On Saturday, Rasmussen took her season tally to seven winners with her second metropolitan victory of the year with an all the way victory behind the Darren Weeks trained two-year-old, Soap Opera.

Sent straight to the front once the mobile released the field, Soap Opera was able to dictate the pace through the early stages with opening slits of 29.3 and 31.7 seconds as the small field settled in single file order.

Approaching the 600-metre point, Bernie Hewitt angled Beachride off the fence to make a strong challenge and the pace went on with a 27.9 third split as they paired off and quickly pulled clear of the remaining pack.

Turning for home and the race was a two-horse battle up the stretch, with Soap Opera in for the fight to maintain her advantage and claim a narrow victory over a game Beachride, with the closing quarter in a sharp 27.5.

Placed in all five career starts to date, Soap Opera has three minor placings alongside her past two victories, with the Warrawee Needy filly a chance of heading South to contest the New South Wales Breeders Challenge Series in the coming months.

It was the second Albion Park winner in four days for the Weeks/Rasmussen partnership, with the trotter Get Used to It an impressive winner last Tuesday on debut

Purchased as a yearling from the 2020 Melbourne APTS from the Yabby Dam Farms draft, the gelding has been a work in progress for Weeks and Rasmussen over the past three years and races under the ownership of Kylie.

Not presenting the gelding in public until earlier this season, the son of the French stallion Used To Me had five education trials followed by a further three qualifying trials before making his first race appearance last week.

Starting from the 20m handicap at his race debut, the four-year-old was safely away from the tapes, however, was left exposed and forced to sit outside the leader, Aurora.

Trotting cleanly, as the field approached the 400-metre mark, Get Used To It had put the leader away and moved to a narrow lead as the runs started to come from back in the pack.

Yet as they swung for home, nothing from back in the pack was making ground and Get Used To It let down strongly to claim victory by 11 metres over Supplanter with Natty Pagger a further five metres away in third position.

With a closing half in 57.6 (28.6 | 29), it was a smart debut performance by the four-year-old, defeating some experienced and well-travelled campaigners in his first race appearance.

With seven wins already this season from 41 starts, expect Kylie to be back to add more winners to the tally by seasons end.

THE BAD

Some New South Wales trainers might have been lamenting Shannon Price heading to Menangle with a trio of runners last Tuesday.

Contesting two qualifying heats of the Nutrien Equine Classic, along with a support race later on the card, all three Price trained runners were successful.

With driver Adam Sanderson also making the trip South for the meeting, the pair combined to both claim their first treble at Menangle, with Sanderson claiming his seventh victory this season on the big 1400 metre oval.

Quality three-year-old Sure Thing Captain bounced back from some luckless performances during the Constellations carnival to find the front soon after the start of the 2300 metre contest and lead throughout.

Zipping home up the long Menangle straight, the gelding progressed through to the final this Thursday at Bendigo with a sharp 26.8 closing quarter.

One race later and team Raboki had their second runner through to the Finals at Bendigo when two-year-old gelding Force Full qualified for his age division with a swooping victory.

Positioned three back on the inside at his first race away from the Albion Park 1660 metre journey, the Sweet Lou gelding let down strongly over the last 200 metres when angled to the outside to grab victory.

A newcomer to the stable, Makara, was previously trained by Luke Whittaker and after a recent change in ownership, the gelding was a travelling companion for the two juvenile stablemates.

The seven-year-old eased from the start over the mile trip to settle six back as the field settled in single file, before being eased off the inside to lead the one-wide line from the 600.

Finishing strongly, Makara had the speed to arrive for his eighth career victory, with the 1.53.2 winning time establishing a new career PB and taking his Australian record to three wins and three placings from six starts.

All three pacers will now head to Bendigo this Friday night where Sure Thing Captain and Force Full will contest their respective age Finals, with Makara likely to also feature in a support race.

THE WILDCARD

Warming up for next week’s World Driving Championships in Europe, Pete McMullen took a driving treble on Saturday night to reach 150 winners for the 2023 season.

Sidelined earlier in the season owing to suspensions, Leader Peter has been chasing in the Queensland Drivers Premiership all season as Nathan Dawson continues to rack up the winners and lead the way, the cousins still the only drivers to surpass 100 wins in the 2023 season to date.

The treble to McMullen gave him the driving honours on Saturday night and allowed him to claw back another winner in the State Premiership with Dawson ending the night with a double and take his tally to 229, his lead sitting at 77 wins.

It was McMullen at his best from the front in the opening race of the night, continuing an affinity with the opening race where he has driven the winner of the first race at The Creek in six of the last nine meetings.

Sending Its Mr Clooney straight to the front, McMullen pinched a steady 39.1 second lead time that was followed with a 61 second opening half.

A 26.6 third split made it tough going for the chasing pack and Its Mr Clooney held off a fast-finishing Alta Revelry to give owner Craig Whiteoak and trainer Chantal Turpin the winning quinella.

The win gave McMullen his 150^th success for the season, the sixth successive season and twelfth overall that he has reached that figure.

Whiteoak, a loyal supporter of the Turpin/McMullen team had further success later in the night when Elouisa Dale led throughout in a mare’s event for McMullen’s second winner.

The treble came later in the evening when Gus made it two wins in the week, leading throughout over the 2647m journey following his win on Tuesday.

The midweek win saw the four-year-old better his own age record set in June, with his 1.59.3 rate for the 2138 metre stand shaving 0.8 off the record and finishing just 0.3 outside the overall track record held by Our Overanova that has stood since September 2019.

THE MILESTONE

Gemma Hewitt may have trained her first winner in the 2012/13 season; however, it was not until the 2019/20 season that she first competed in a race as a driver.

Reaching 200 training wins last season, Hewitt reached her first driving milestone since her first race victory when reaching a half-century of winners on Friday at Albion Park.

Partnering the four-year-old Amami, which she also trains, the gelding continued his good form in recent times when finishing strongly down the outside to arrive at the same time as Betterthanarocket.

With the judge unable to declare a margin, a dead heat was posted with the 1.52.2 winning time a new PB for Amami and the win giving Hewit the 50^th driving win of her career.

A beautifully bred gelding, Amami’s dam is the half-sister to the superstar mare and Rising Sun winner Ladies In Red, with Friday’s victory taking his career figures to eight wins from 36 starts.

On Saturday night at The Creek, a metropolitan victory with the mare Jilliby Chambers ensured that if there could be no doubt as to a half-win from the dead heat the previous night for Gemma, claiming a half-head margin aboard the five-year-old mare.

Another pacer that she also trains, Jilliby Chambers was a late starter, arriving in Queensland with Hewitt at the start of this season, the mare having won her only race start in December of 2022.

Her victory on Saturday night was her sixth this season, with the 1.55.9 passing lane victory also establishing a new PB for her owners Wayne and Julie Loader.

THIS WEEK

It will be a busy week in Queensland, with seven straight days of racing starting on Monday night and concluding on Sunday night, at the same venue- Redcliffe.

A further two meetings will be held from The Triangle, with the regular Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon fixtures.

Albion Park will be the venue of three meetings, with an 11-race card on Tuesday featuring the heats of the two-year-old QBRED Triad Series.

Friday will see the heats for the three-year-olds looking to earn qualification to the finals which will also be held on the big all QBRED night on Saturday August 19, with the third meeting for the week, the Saturday night metropolitan fixture.

At Bendigo on Friday night, finals of the Nutrien Equine Classic will be held, where Sure Thing Captain and Force Full will fly the Queensland flag for trainer Shannon Price.

This week also marks the start of the Brisbane Show, where Show Trotting will feature as a demonstration in the main arena of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, starting on Saturday August 12 and held each day through to Sunday August 20.