Astute trainer Barry Campbell had the best strike rate in the state last season and that trend continued at Devonport on Wednesday when he produced three winners and three second placegetters from just seven runners.
His first success came via tough on-pacer Hartman, who stalked the speedy Thoros Of Myr under Luke Dempsey before proving too strong at his first run back from a spell in the benchmark 76 handicap.
Hartman’s time of 1:07.09 broke the track record for 1150 metres.
The former Chris Waller representative has now won half of his 12 appearances for Campbell, with five of those six victories coming on the Devonport “carpet”.
The Tasmanian hall-of-fame trainer then made it a running double with sparingly raced mare Houlihan, who finished off hard from midfield under Anthony Darmanin to take the Class 1 handicap over 1009 metres.
The daughter of Hanseatic has now won two of five starts and appears to have a bright future.
Campbell completed his treble with the honest Tuskegee, who enjoyed a gun trail behind the leaders under Craig Newitt before wearing down stablemate Simply Deep (very game in defeat after facing the breeze throughout) in the day’s feature, a $45,000 open handicap over 1350 metres.
The Alabama Express gelding’s success also completed a treble for Newitt.
He won earlier on the Leanne Gaffney-prepared Equivaster, who finished off strongly to clear maiden ranks over 1150 metres at her 10th outing.
Newitt’s other winner was John Blacker’s in-form charge Stardarmus, who made it two wins from his past three outings when taking the benchmark 60 handicap over 1350 metres.
The win was the first leg of a double for Blacker. He took the final event on the card, a Class 3 handicap over 1650 metres, with Al Maximus, who stormed home from the back under Kirra-Lee Lane to nail race favourite Azonto right on the line.