Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame trainer Barry Campbell saddled up just the four runners at Wednesday night’s Launceston meeting and went home with three winners and a second.
His treble came in consecutive races, kicking off with Wolf Junior, who box-seated under Luke Dempsey before wearing down pacemaker Scarletti in the concluding stages of the benchmark 60 handicap over 1400 metres. That pair gapped the rest of the field.
The honest full brother to 2021/22 Tasmanian three-year-old of the year Alpine Wolf has now won three of 19 appearances and placed on another nine occasions.
Campbell’s second success came via Earendel, who despite being flushed out at the 800-metre mark proved much too strong for his rivals in the night’s feature, a $35,000 open handicap also over 1400 metres.
The sparingly raced six-year-old Needs Further gelding was below his best in two autumn runs but placed in three trials prior to his dominant first-up win under Chloe Wells.
Earendel is again likely to target the Devonport Cup in January, a race in which he was unplaced as favourite last year.
Campbell again combined with Dempsey to complete his treble with former Chris Waller rep Summit, who proved too tough after facing the breeze in the Class 1 handicap over the same trip.
The Zoustar gelding, who was narrowly denied when making his local debut on October 23, found just enough to scrape home over the fast-finishing I’m A Machine on Wednesday night.
Dempsey’s partner, Erica Byrne Burke, shared the riding honours. She opened her account leading throughout on her former master Adam Trinder’s charge McVeigh, who made it back-to-back wins to kick off this campaign with a tenacious effort in the Class 3 handicap over 1200 metres.
Byrne Burke later teamed with Leanne Gaffney to take the Class 3 handicap over 1600 metres with short-priced favourite Little El ($1.90-$1.70), a comfortable 1¾-length winner after box-seating.