In Brief
- Maarkle shines in maiden.
- Luttrell expects the mare to win again.
- Tootell happy to extend his stay in Tasmania.
The opening race in Devonport boasted a field of 10 in a maiden over 1350 metres and without wanting to show disrespect to the competitors, it was one of the worst races, in terms of quality and ability, framed by the Devonport club this year.
But with every race that lacks quality comes an opportunity for those not blessed with ability to earn some prize money for their owners.
On Sunday the John Luttrell-trained Maarkle delivered her best effort to win the race and convincingly, scoring clearly from the well-backed Fighting Grace ($31 into $10) and Puma ($3.60fav) that also was well backed.
Maarkle had produced a couple of encouraging performances in Hobart when she first arrived in the state from Victoria, but she was venturing to the synthetic with woeful history on that type of surface in her home state.
"I thought this was a race that she could win even though she had woeful synthetic form at Ballarat (Vic) but as the rider (David Tootell snr) said, Ballarat synthetic is a lot different to Devonport's."
The veteran jockey was happy with the mare's effort.
"We had the gun run just behind the leaders and when I eased her out at the top of the straight, she just cruised to them and won without effort," Tootell said.
Tootell, who hails from South Australia, has been living in the state for three months and working at Brighton riding work for Luttrell and Gary White.
"I'm enjoying my time here in Tassie and it's a good set-up at Brighton and I'm happy to get the few race rides here and there," Tootell said.
"I'm heading home on Monday for a couple of days to catch up with family and friends, but I'll be back later in the week."
