Yole the first to 100

Leading Tasmanian harness racing trainer Ben Yole became the first trainer in Australia to register a century of wins for the 2021 season after preparing a treble on the 11-race card in Hobart on Sunday night, the 38th race meeting held on mainland Tasmania this season.

It is the sixth consecutive season Yole has notched up 100 wins or more in a season.

“It is really good to achieve it again. It is a big team effort and I can’t thank my staff and owners enough, everyone that pitches in is a big help,” said Yole.

Yole had a large team of horses in at the Hobart card, which saw him take five trucks and a couple of floats down the Midland Highway from his Sidmouth base.

Although it was an 11-race card, Yole had to wait till the final three races of the night to get his treble after going into the meeting on 97 wins.

His first win of the night was The Black Assassin ($3.50), who was well driven by Gareth Rattray to win the TFUA Pace.

Settling four back the pegs, Rattray weaved his way through the field over the final lap to score by 2.7 metres.

“The drive won the race, the horse had been going well for a while with no luck, and he doesn’t seem to try when driven off the fence, so Gareth (Rattray) elected to go there early and hope for a bit of luck and he got that and got there,” said Yole post-race.

Settling one-out and four-back, Chibnall was able to give the pacer a lovely three-wide one-back run into the race over the final 1100-metres to prove too good late for the race favourite and stablemate Oneofthelads.

“He put them away well tonight, he has been a bit hesitant to put them away at times, but he may have got a bit of confidence out of his last win, and young Jordy (Chibnall) is getting along well with him, she absolutely loves this horse, and he is rewarding her for her efforts with him,” explained Yole.

Southern Gnp was the pacer that gave Yole his triple-figure result in the Tasmanian Trotting Club Pace.

Given a lovely run by Gareth Rattray one-out and one-back in the early stages, the hall of fame reinsman elected to lead up the three-wide line over the final 800-metres on the Live Or Die gelding, and they proved too good late by a half-neck over the fast-finishing stablemate Baccarat.

“I thought he should be winning that race. When he drops into that rating bracket, he wins, and he will take his turn to get another one, Gareth (Rattray) drove him like the best horse in the race, and that won him race,” Yole said about his 100th season win.

The Yole stable has been known to head across and have a satellite stable in Victoria during the winter period, which the stable hasn’t ruled out for this season.

“We are thinking about it, but at the moment, we are happy with what we are doing. We also have a lot of young ones in work, so we are all sort of hands-on at the stables at the moment,” explained Yole.

Dylan Ford took driving honours at the meeting with a treble with Abs Boy ($21), Stone Cracker ($4.40) and Reign Of Pain ($4.00).

But the story of the night was Tiarna Ford, who drove her first winner in the sulky in the L.H.T Cup with Belle Of Brooklyn, who is prepared by her mother Tammy Langley.

Tiarna will be featured on this website on Tuesday.

By Duncan Dornauf for Tasracing