Mature-age apprentice Kirra-Lee Lane had the best day of her career thus far at Hobart last Sunday, booting home a trio of victors.
She opened her account on the Yassy Nishitani-trained Lyco Reco, who enjoyed a box-seat trail from the inside barrier before proving too strong in the opening event on the card, a maiden/Class 1 plate over 2100 metres.
Lane’s second success came via Shaun Nichols’s promising four-year-old Sh’bourne Power. He also enjoyed a gun run in transit before scraping home in the Class 1 handicap over 1410 metres.
The sparingly raced Squamosa gelding has now won two of four appearances and the only time he’s missed a place was on debut, when he got too far back.
Lane completed her treble aboard her master Glenn Stevenson’s charge Eaglefurther, who was untroubled leading throughout in the benchmark 60 handicap over 1600 metres.
The feature event on the card, the $45,000 Alexandra Plate (1200m) for two-year-olds, was taken by Leeanne Gaffney’s smart filly Buzzoffski, who led and ran her rivals ragged under 3kg claimer Bree Temple.
Gaffney also provided the quinella, with Valley Star chasing his stablemate throughout under Lane. Remarkably, Buzzoffski and Valley Star have run the quinella in their first three outings, the first two of which were on the Devonport carpet.
Later, Sarah Cotton’s super-honest sprinter In The Ocean dispelled any doubts on his ability to run a strong 1200 metres with a dominant display in the $45,000 open handicap.
The Foxwedge gelding camped just off the speed under Troy Baker before looming large and booting clear to score by 3¼ lengths, his first success beyond 1100 metres.