Veteran hoop Brendon McCoull extended his hot recent run of form with a pair of winners at Hobart last Sunday.
The 14-time premiership winner notched a winning treble in the first three races at the previous meeting at the same track a fortnight earlier and took the first two events last Sunday.
The first to salute was Imogen Miller’s recent stable acquisition Creative License, who crossed from a wide draw before leading throughout in the open-age maiden over 1200 metres at his local debut.
The Caravaggio gelding displayed encouraging improvement to place at Pakenham at his second career outing for Alex Rae in Victoria but was a noted drifter in betting last Sunday, easing from $7.50 to start a $12 chance.
McCoull then combined with Team Wells to take the Class 1 handicap over the same trip with progressive filly Shim, who powered home late to prevail narrowly after settling rearward.
The daughter of Wordsmith fractured her pelvis as favourite on debut at Devonport last July but since returning from that injury in mid-April has scored at two of her four appearances. She hasn’t had a lot of luck in either of the other two outings.
David Pires shared the riding honours, also booting home a pair of winners. He kicked off with the Yassy Nishitani-prepared Arcucci, who finished off strongly from midfield to clear maiden ranks over 1430 metres at her 12th appearance.
Pires completed his double on Scott Brunton’s sparingly raced So You Think colt Moveforlex who took the Class 1 handicap over 1600 metres.
The highly promising three-year-old was an eye-catcher hitting the line hard to miss narrowly on debut last spring and has started odds-on at both runs this time in. Despite looking under pressure midway down the home straight on both occasions he has dug deep to score narrowly, but impressively.
The win was also the first leg of a double for Brunton, who later took the benchmark 60 handicap over 1430 metres with another lightly raced, promising type in Ole Ola.
The four-year-old daughter of Adelaide had been sound off wide runs at her first two runs this prep but had no such concerns third up, taking up a forward position from a kind draw under 1.5kg claimer Taylor Johnstone before cruising to a comfortable 2¼-length win.