Peaceful Thomas hits back against the wind

LIGHTLY raced four-year-old Peaceful Thomas ($2 fav) made a brilliant return to racing with an emphatic win in an R0-R1 event over 1670m at the non-TAB meeting at Carrick on Saturday.

With Ricky Duggan in the sulky, the Marc Butler-trained gelding did it tough facing the breeze for much of the race, but made light of the task to score by 5.5m from Berty Mack ($25.20), with Mostly Spirit ($36.40) 2m astern.

Peaceful Thomas had not started since winning the Sires Produce Stakes for three-yearolds in July last year at what was only his third start.

Butler said the gelding had had his share of little issues but he had an enormous amount of natural ability.

Peaceful Thomas won on debut in Hobart in September 2017 and he didn’t resurface at the races until February last year when second to Bettabrown Tiger, but he was again spelled and resumed for a firstup win in the Sires Produce.

“He has all the ability needed to make it to top grade but he is still learning his craft,” Butler said.

“He is a horse that can do it tough but still have speed left at the end of his races.

“He gives me the impression that he could be capable of winning across the water but, in the meantime, we’ll just potter about at home.

“The Raider Stakes is his main target this preparation, so he still has a way to go before we start getting confident about him making it to that race in May.” INNER LIGHT delivered a top effort to win the Carrick Cup to make up for several minor placings in feature races.

The Juanita McKenzietrained gelding began well with Ricky Duggan aboard and had no trouble finding the lead. But when I’m Compliant started to over-race outside of the leader, Duggan eased back and sat behind that horse until well into the back straight the last time where he regained the lead and then held out determined challenges in the home straight to score by more than 3m from Dasher Houli, with Reign of Pain a metre astern.

Inner Light had to settle for minor placings in the St Marys, New Norfolk and Devonport cups, so this latest victory was sweet for McKenzie.

“He deserved to win one of these minor cups, but he has done a good job since he landed in my stables just over a year ago,” McKenzie said. “He proved he was up to the better ones when he was placed in the Devonport Cup, so we’ll head him towards the Easter Cup. I know that will be a big test for him, but he’s done well enough to deserve a chance in a really good race. He is very good from a standing start, so he also has that advantage.”

The crowd at Carrick was a cracker and the club has made the right move to hold its showcase meeting in the Saturday mid-February timeslot even though it is a non-TAB meeting with no Sky coverage.