Pullen warms to home state with Troy’s wins
ASTUTE Tasmanian trainerdriver Ramon Pullen left Tasmania bound for Queensland in search of the warm weather about 14 years ago but a combination of homesickness and an ailing Queensland harness industry drew him back to his place of birth.
Pullen returned with a handful of horses and it was only a matter of time before the winners started to flow.
In Hobart on Friday night his talented five-year-old Castor Troy ($9.80) made it successive wins when he powered home from well back to win a C1 over 2090m.
The gelding settled near the rear but when secondfavourite Flying Wingard ($2.60) eased out three-wide to make his move, Castor Troy’s driver, Rodney Ashwood, latched on for a ride home.
Flying Wingard hit the front halfway up the straight but when Ashwood got busy, the son of Aces N Sevens slipped into overdrive and powered home to score easily.
Castor Troy hit the line 3.2m clear of Flying Wingard with Artarama more than 9m away third. ONE of last season’s better three-year-old pacers El Jays Mystery resumed from a spell with a game win at Carrick Park paceway yesterday afternoon.
Despite galloping soon after the start, the now four-yearold mare recovered to tack on while Lead Singer took control with Shadow Control making for a solid tempo pressuring outside of the leader.
Driver Ricky Duggan allowed El Jays Mystery ($2.70) to make her run 700m from home as she strolled around the field three and four-wide to finally claim the lead in the home straight. But the mare had to pull out all stops to hold on and defeat the fast-finishing Heavennroll ($101) with the well-backed fixed odds favourite Lead Singer ($2.40) hanging on for third.
“The mare did a good job to win given she got out of her gear soon after the start but she managed to regroup and I thought she hit the line well,” Duggan said.
“She’s obviously done a bit of work but there’s no doubt she will gain a lot of benefit from this run.”
El Jays Mystery is trained at Karoola by Dick Eaves and she is owned and raced by him along with his wife, Margaret, thoroughbred trainers John Blacker and Leon Laskey, and their partners Penny Cawthen and Sharee Marshall, Gail and Lyndon Menegon, Michelle and Jeffrey Arnott, Barbara and Richard Imlach, Ross Goodsell, Terry Sinclair and Gail Wilkins.