Smart pacer Taurisi returned to his best to land some good bets in the Discretionary Handicap at Mowbray on Wednesday night.
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The Todd Rattray-trained and driven gelding was backed from $3.80 to $2.50 in the Ubet fixed odds market before storming home from near-last to score by 10m from Jeans Mattjesty and Rocknrollhighlight.
The support for Taurisi saw him displace backmarker Star Chamber ($2.20 to $3.10) as favourite.
And, he was the fourth heavily-backed winner in the first four races.
It was Taurisi’s second successive standing-start win but in between he put in a poor run and was beaten by 62m.
“He didn’t pull up too well after his last run,” Rattray said.
“And, he was pressured in the lead which is not his go. They ran along in front tonight and that helped him.”
The mile-rate for the 2200m trip was 1:59.3, only a second outside the standing-start record.
The quick time was set up by Star Chamber who started off 30m but began brilliantly and was alongside the leader Karalta Dazzler at the 1400m.
With the pressure on, Karalta Dazzler was being tapped up to hold the front with a lap to go.
Star Chamber eventually found the lead in the back straight but the effort told and he weakened to finish fifth, beaten 15m.
Punters were on the ball from the outset when Our Percius, after a perfect drive from Conor Crook, landed a $23 to $9.50 plunge in the first race.
Ricky Duggan brought Holme On The Bayou, originally an emergency, from second-last to score a big win in race 2 after being backed from $9.50 to $8.
Zhukov Leis ($5 into $4.60) led all the way in the third race to give Todd Rattray the first leg of a running double.
It took until race 5 for bookies to get any respite. Northview Dave defied a $3.40 to $6.50 betting drift to give premiership leader Mark Yole his first win for the night.
POSITIVE SWAB PENALTY CUT
Flowery Gully harness trainer Ken Rattray has had a five-year disqualification reduced to three years on appeal.
Rattray’s top pacer Destreos returned a positive swab to cobalt after racing at Carrick last December.
The Appeal Board found that the horse’s elevated reading – 156 micrograms when the limit is 100 – was not the result of any deliberate or reckless action by the trainer.
Had that been the case, it said the five-year ban would have stood.
Although it couldn’t be proven, the suspicion was that the elevated reading was the result of Rattray’s feeding and treatment regime.
A full transcript of the Appeal Board’s ruling can be found on harness.org.au.
