Hungover’s late heroics
THE final round of the harness industry’s Sires’ Stakes races were held in Devonport on Sunday night and produced a fairytale result for one trainer and a heart- stopping win for another.
Quality four- year- old mare Still Hungover overcame multiple incidents to emerge triumphant in the $ 50,000 Granny Smith final over 2645m and Pardoe Plugga delivered an amazing finish to take out the $ 50,000 Raider Stakes for entires and geldings.
Still Hungover ( Ricky Duggan) went into the Granny Smith on the back of an impressive win in the qualifying heat in Launceston a week earlier but the daughter of Sutter Hanover tried everything to throw the race away.
The Rodney Ashwood- trained mare skipped out of her gear a number of times in the first lap when driver Ricky Duggan was bustling her to take up a position in the one- out line.
“Her legs were going everywhere but to her credit she regained her composure, and it was probably me pulling her sideways to get off the pegs that got her unbalanced,” Duggan said.
Still Hungover gained the lead and when Duggan called on her for the supreme effort in the short home straight, she ran up the track and looked like galloping but Duggan was able to hold her together to cross the line a comfortable winner.
“When there is nothing with her, she has a tendency to pull up and this time she ran up the track and wanted to throw it away but thankfully she still got the job done,” he said.
Still Hungover scored by 4.6m with outsider Cinocal Jamane ($ 36.20) 1.2m astern.
Pardoe Plugga ( Western EditionHotline) gave comeback trainer Leigh Rand the best welcome back to harness racing possible and gave driver Ben Parker his biggest win as a reinsman.
Rand has only recently returned from a 30- year absence, but Pardoe Plugga has fast- tracked his return to the training spotlight.
Parker was thrilled with this latest win and believes the gelding has a very bright future.
“He was four and five wide nearing the turn and I was just hoping he could catch them, but so fast did he finish he’s ended up winning by 3m,” Parker said.