Lightly raced three-year-old Eastender confirmed his status as one of the most promising stayers in the state with a barnstorming win in the $30,000 Tasmanian St. Leger (2400m) at Launceston last Sunday.
The Barry Campbell-trained Tickets gelding, who started at $6.10, was hard ridden at the tail of the field and appeared to be going nowhere under Anthony Darmanin at the 600-metre mark but let down strongly in the run to the line to leave his more experienced rivals in his wake. 
Campbell has done a great job with his charge this prep as Eastenders only shook off his maiden tag mid-March. 
Having only had nine career outings he has plenty of scope for further improvement and could be a major player in Tassie’s feature cups next summer.
The win completed a double for Campbell, who had earlier taken the Class 1 handicap over 1200 metres with Fragment, notching his second win from just three appearances. 
Boris Thornton was the winning rider.
Another promising galloper with summer riches in mind is the Stuart Gandy-trained Geegee Blackprince ($16.40), who overcame a pre-race mishap before scoring a dominant win in the $30,000 Tas Sires’ Produce (1400m) over his stablemate and odds-on favourite Gee Gee Lanett. 
Geegee Blackprince dumped jockey Troy Baker on the way to the gates but was quickly recaptured and passed fit to run. He settled back and wide but unleashed a big finish to score going away by 2¼ lengths. 
The lightly raced colt is bred to be anything, being a half-brother to local champ Geegees Blackflash by 2010 Melbourne Cup winner Americain.
The Tasmanian Derby looms as a likely summer target.
Elsewhere on the Launceston card Scott Brunton’s dominant season continued in the other two $30,000 events on the program.
The first of his winners was promising filly Angel of the Abyss, who took the 3YO Classic over 1400 metres. 
It was an astute ride by top hoop David Pires, who led on the inside rail before making a beeline for the outside fence and better ground on straightening.
The daughter of Snippetson careered away for a soft 3½-length win.
Pires also negotiated a path out wide on Brunton’s second winner, Step the Pedal, who came from midfield to take the open handicap, also over 1400 metres.
It was the fifth successive win for the daughter of Elvstroem and both of Brunton’s charges are likely to venture across Bass Strait in the coming weeks.