Apprentice Kyle Maskiell took riding honours at Launceston on Wednesday night with two winners.
He opened his account aboard the Ian Hay-trained Bideford who led throughout to comfortably take the Class 4 handicap over 1200 metres at his second run back from a break.
The gelded son of Towkay has proved to be a very honest conveyance with his 12 outings yielding five wins and six minor placings.
Maskiell later teamed with Whitemore trainer Nigel Schuuring to guide his charge Eternal Speed to a tough win in the benchmark 72 handicap over 1400 metres.
It was a big effort by the Tough Speed gelding who had been posted wide without cover throughout but kept finding under Maskiell’s urgings to score by half a length.
Fellow apprentice Shiralee Maher staged the upset of the night, blowing most punters out of the quadrella aboard $25.80 outsider One Shot Off who led throughout in Class 1 company over 1400 metres.
It was the second successive all-the-way longshot win for the lightly raced six-year-old mare who had cleared her maiden ranks at her previous outing at Hobart on November 16 at odds of $32.40.
The daughter of Helike was having just her fourth outing on Wednesday night and is trained at Seven Mile Beach by Douglas Brazendale who has had his team going great guns in recent weeks.
It was a good night for the juniors with Raquel Clark maintaining her lead in the jockeys premiership by taking the last, a benchmark 72 handicap over 2100 metres aboard her master Barry Campbell’s charge Aventador.
It was just the second time the Azevedo gelding had tackled the trip. He was narrowly beaten over the same route a fortnight earlier when rising sharply in journey following a 1400-metre victory.
The six-year-old showed the benefit of that on Wednesday when coming from just off the pace to find the front on straightening and then being able to maintain his surge to the line in strong style.
Non-claimer Siggy Carr also tuned in, aboard the heavily backed Adam Trinder-trained debutante Harvey Bay, who was untroubled leading throughout in the 3Y0 and up maiden of 1200m.