Magician Shows His Tricks to Land TAB Eureka Slot

Magician Wins The Beautide. Photo by Eliza Howlett.

IT was only fitting.

An emerging pacer trained and driven by a member of the Rattray family won the inaugural running of a race named after Rattray clan’s greatest horse and one of Tasmania’s all-time best pacers, Beautide.

Just as Beautide lifted under pressure for so many of his biggest wins, four-year-old Magician did just that to win last night’s $80,000 The Beautide (2090m) in Hobart.

It was a huge thrill for Todd Rattray, who will now take Magician to the scene of most of Beautide’s greatest wins, including two Inter Dominion finals, at Menangle.

Winning The Beautide snared Magician the Tasracing slot in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 2.

The win looked in doubt rounding the home bend when Magician was under pressure trying to run down the Matthew Howlett trained-and-driven leader Mickey Oh.

Despite coming from outside the back row and doing most of the work, Magician snatched a one-metre win in a 1min58.8sec mile rate.

Rohan Hadley’s exciting three-year-old De Goey produced a monstrous run for third after making an early mistake.

“Just to be a big part of a big race named after Beautide was great, but to win it was extra special. And getting the ticket into the TAB Eureka is an extra bonus,” Todd Rattray said.

“The TAB Eureka is shaping as an incredible race and I know our horse would need to improve a lot to give it a shake, but, hey, Beautide improved a lot when he went to that big track at Menangle.”

Beautide, who oozed potential in Tasmania before moving to James Rattray at Menangle, won two Inter Dominions (2014 and ’15), the 2013 Miracle Mile and a string of other major races in a career spanning 81 starts for 49 wins, 20 placings and a thumping $2,183,132 in prize money.

Magician has been a “work in progress” for Rattray, but has turned the corner this season with his last nine starts netting seven wins and two seconds to take his career record to 19 starts for 11 wins, five seconds and two thirds.

“He hasn’t been an easy horse to train, to be honest,” he said. “You could always see the ability there, but he wanted to hang quite badly and he just didn’t want to go at times. He’s been a challenge for sure,” Rattray said.

“But he’s turned the corner this campaign. He's showing a bit more speed and really developed a will to win, as you saw in this win (The Beautide).”