A brilliant ride by Bulent Muhcu gave the Team Wells-prepared Gee Gee Secondover a long overdue first stakes win in the listed $100,000 Tasmanian Newmarket (1200m) at Launceston on Wednesday night.
Muhcu snagged the $18 chance straight to the rear from the outside alley then saved valuable ground along the inside on straightening before gaining a narrow split between the two leaders at the 200-metre mark.
Race favourite Mandela Effect looked stiff, held up on the home turn and early in the straight before surging into second place once into the clear to be beaten a neck.
His heavily supported stablemate Street Tough ($7.50-$4.60) ran third.
Gee Gee Secondover was twice placed behind Mystical Journey as a juvenile before bumping into The Inevitable as a three-year-old. He was also stakes-placed behind iron horse Hellova Street last season.
It was Leon Wells’s third victory in Tassie’s premier sprint — he’d won previously with Cool ’n’ Black in 1997 and Black ’n’ Tough in 2013 — but Wednesday night’s success was his first training in partnership with sons Trent and Dean.
The win gave Muhcu a running double, following an earlier win on Tassie’s most improved galloper, Orange Roughie, who made it four consecutive wins in the benchmark 74 handicap over 1600 metres.
The Stephen Shaw-prepared Needs Further gelding jumped straight to the front but when pressured for the lead Muhcu elected to hand it up. He then tracked the leader to the home turn before quickly putting paid to that galloper, going away for a comfortable 1¼-length victory.
The Newmarket winner’s owners, Paul and Elizabeth Geard, also went on to complete a double, with the Stuart Gandy-trained Gee Gee Lanett leading throughout under Siggy Carr in the last, a benchmark 84 handicap over 1200 metres.
It was a great night for Carr, who trained the night’s opening winner, Coronation Doris, who shed her maiden tag over 1100 metres at $31.
She also trained and rode Hannah’s Song to victory in the third race, a benchmark 60 handicap over 1200 metres