Glenview Lanikai delivers career highlight for Ben Parker

Latrobe trainer Ben Parker celebrated the biggest win of his harness racing career when Glenview Lanikai (Soho Lanikai) claimed the $14,000 Ladbrokes Mares Incentive at Launceston on the final day of January.

The mare is by the unbeaten Soho Lanikai, a son of Somebeachsomewhere who has made an exceptional start at stud with just eight starters for seven individual winners, including a six-figure earner.

Bred by Michael and Carol LeFevre, Glenview Lanikai is out of Motoring Rivers, a New York Motoring mare from the influential family of Swishinova, Barrington Lass, and champion Beautide. She is raced on lease by Parker in partnership with family and friends.

Despite sitting parked for much of the trip, Glenview Lanikai was dominant. When driver Liam Older asked her to go approaching the home turn, she quickly put the race beyond doubt, striding clear to score by almost 13 metres in a 1:59.5 mile rate.

Older was full of praise post-race, noting, “She did it nicely, and she was well overdue for a win.”

The meeting also featured the $40,000 Devonport Cup, taken out by Maebee, driven to victory by his trainer Conor Crook, who notched a winning treble on the program. Mark Yole also enjoyed three winners, while Garth Rattray celebrated a special milestone — his 1600th career victory — when Family Reasons prevailed earlier in the evening.

by Gary Newton for Harnesslink