Iylac Pakaria bounces back for Tasbred final win

Iylac Pakaria bounced back into the winner’s list with a dominant display in the Group 2 Prydes Easifeed Evicus for the two-year-old Tasbred fillies in Hobart on Sunday night.

The daughter of Betting Line made an impression winning her first three starts, including the Sweepstakes Final on 3 September.

She wasn’t seen until 11 November in the Evicus heat, when defeated for the first time in her career, but trainer Bianca Heenan revealed last night after the race that there had been some significant issues behind the scenes.

“She was a lot underdone for the heat.

“After she won the Sweepstakes, we tipped her out, and we thought we were doing the right thing for her, but she had an allergic reaction to an ulcer injection which almost killed her,” Heenan said post-race.

In Sunday’s $60,000 feature, reinsman Mitch Ford took the filly straight to the lead and dictated affairs in the mile race running quarters of 28.8s, 31.7s, 29.7s and 27.6s for a mile of 1m 57.8s, 0.2s outside Melnrowley’s race record.

The winning margin was 15.6m over heat winners Reely Nauti and Gypsy Amour.

“It was a nice draw, and I was always going to take advantage of that from there.

“She got it easy enough and was good enough late that’s for sure,” said Mitch after the event.

It has been a big season for Mitch, who is in his first full season of driving after starting his career in the back half of 2021.

The 19-year-old has driven 64 winners this season, which sees him on top of not only the state’s junior drivers’ premiership, but the overall drivers’ title, where he has an 11-win lead over Mark Yole as we near the end of the season.

Heenan confirmed that it was the last we would see of Iylac Pakaria for the season.

“That’s her for the season, she deserves the paddock and deserves to grow, she is only a tiny little thing with a massive heart,” she said.