I'll keep them all here if we can get races for them ... that's why I've moved others out of the state in the past
- Owner Mick Maxfield
Successful owner Mick Maxfield launched a three-pronged attack on the $15,000 Keith Stanley Debutante Stakes at Mowbray on Friday night and duly landed the money - but not with the horse he expected.
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Yeah Mate, given a perfect run one-out and one-back by Rohan Hillier, scored a decisive 5.3m win in the first two-year-old race of the season while his stablemates Who Said You Said and Shaun To The Max finished third and seventh respectively.
Maxfield said he had expected Shaun To The Max, driven by his trainer Paul Ashwood, to win but the gelding weakened after racing in the death.
"He had worked better at home (than the other two) but they ran the first quarter in 28 seconds which may have taken a bit out of him," the owner said.
"Rodney (Ashwood) said that Who Said You Said got knocked over but he came home all right."
Maxfield bred all three of his runners, with Yeah Mate being by Western Terror from the unraced mare Mach Spider.
"Mach Spider was one of my horses but I leased her to Phillip Aylett and she got in foal after one of his stallions jumped a fence," the owner explained.
"The foal was never registered to race and I gave it to a young girl (as a hack).
"I brought the mare home after that but she was never going to race - she was funny in the back end and they couldn't do much with her.
"Yeah Mate is her first official foal."
Maxfield, who has raced a lot of his horses interstate, said he would like to keep his current crop of two-year-olds in Tasmania.
"I'll keep them all here if we can get races for them," he said.
"That's why I've moved others out of the state in the past.
"I'm breeding a fair few horses now and I really like to run them in Tasmania."
Maxfield said he had no immediate plans for Yeah Mate and would discuss options with Ashwood before making any decisions.
LIGHTLY-RACED five-year-old Beachboy Butch produced one of the most impressive performances of the night in the Rating 50-58.
The Marc Butler-trained gelding almost looked out of contention leaving the back straight but produced a big finish to score by a head in a 1:56 mile rate, running his last 800m in 57.6.
Beachboy Butch is unbeaten in two starts for Butler, with Ricky Duggan in the sulky on both occasions.
Leading trainer Ben Yole finished the meeting with two winners while Taylor Ford drove one winner for Yole and trained another of her own.
