The race to be the leading apprentice jockey in Tasmania for the 2018-2019 season will come down to the final meeting on the calendar after Sunday's results at Spreyton failed to produce a clear favourite.
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Teagan Voorham and Alex Patis ended the day tied on 25 wins apiece after they claimed one and two wins respectively on the day, while Chris Graham was unable to add to his tally of 24 victories.
Patis made her move for the title when she piloted the Glenn Stevenson-trained Kenfromthebar ($5.50) to a two-length triumph in a Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1150 metres.
Voorham then went one win ahead on board $2.60 favourite Divi in the Class 3 Handicap over 1009m for trainer Scott Brunton, but Patis levelled things back up in the next race after scoring a half-length win with the Leanne Gaffney trained Enzian ($9) in the Benchmark 64 Handicap.
Voorham will need a bit of luck on her side to claim a share of the spoils as she is engaged to ride in South Australia on Sunday, where she is currently on a three-month loan stint.
Also searching for a big finish to the season is leading hoop Craig Newitt, who failed to add to his total of 97 winners this season on the eight-race card.
Newitt is aiming to become just the third jockey in Tasmanian history behind Brendon McCoull and Beverely Buckingham to reach the magical 100-win mark, but could only manage a second and a third during the day.
PATIENCE PAYS OFF
Longford trainer Paul Hill cut a happy figure in the mounting yard after the running of the Two-Year-Old and Upwards Maiden over 1650m that was taken out by his five-year-old Roger Verbal Kint.
Racing in his 14th start, the gelding charged home over the last 200m to defeat Havana Deejay and Belchamp to give those connections that made an investment at the $17 price a handy payday.
"At first we didn't think he liked this synthetic track, but except for one start where he got caught wide, he's away and in each time," Hill said.
"He got held up on the corner last start so we were quietly confident that he could run a good race today."
Hill said it has been an exercise to get Roger Verbal Kint to the track in the early stages.
"He's been a handful for us and a few things have gone wrong over his career," he said.
"We've been patient with him - he did have a bleed a while back and we had to get him up and going again.
"He's a horse that ties up bad on us, and it's hard to feed the right energy into him that he needs to get going.
"But our perseverance has paid off"
