Gai Waterhouse and Adrain Bott kept up their successful assault on the Tasmanian summer racing carnival with victories in the $300,000 Group 3 Hobart Cup and $125,000 listed Strutt Stakes last weekend.
Promising staying filly Soul Choice ($1.24 facourite) was first on the board, leading throughout under Jordan Childs in the 2100-metre Strutt last Friday for a soft 2½-length win over local fillies Just A Needs and Cloudy Choice.
The ease of that success suggests the daughter of champion sire Redoute’s Choice still has improvement to come and she will likely again start a short-priced favourite in this Sunday’s Tassie Oaks at Launceston despite tackling a field of greater depth.
Friday’s other features, the Group 3 Bow Mistress Stakes over 1200 metres and the $150,000 listed Tasmanian Derby over 2200 metres also fell to interstate raiders.
David and Coral Feek’s mare Belsielle had to overcome early trouble before finishing off hard to take the fillies-and-mares feature under Craig Newitt while the Patrick Payne-trained Dunkel was badly held up in the home straight before bursting through a late split to take Tassie’s premier staying event for three-year-olds.
Waterhouse and Bott took Sunday’s cup with imported Mastercraftsman gelding Military Mission, who settled further off the speed than anticipated before finishing off strongly under Winona Costin for an authoritative 2¼-length win over local Travelling Gigolo, who found the line well to finish just ahead of race favourite Spirit Ridge.
Military Mission, a lightly raced five-year-old, will also stay in Tassie, to contest Wednesday’s Launceston Cup.
A win in that event would provide his connections, who include Longford hobby trainer Leon Laskey and his partner Sharee Marshall, with a $100,000 bonus.
All-Star Mile aspirant The Inevitable continued on his path towards that feature with his fifth successive win this preparation in Sunday’s other feature, the $125,000 listed Thomas Lyons Stakes over 1400m.
In what was perhaps his most impressive performance this time in, the gelded son of Dundeel setteld worse than midfield under David Pires before hooking wide on the home turn and unleashing a powerful turn of foot to dispatch a quality line-up with ease.
Scott Brunton’s stable star is also nominated for Wednesday, in the Hellova Street Stakes over 1600 metres, but Brunton is unsure whether to accept given the 10-day gap between runs isn’t ideal.