The St Marys meeting on New Year's Day has now been officially abandoned and the Scottsdale meeting in January has been moved to Mowbray.

It's a significant blow for the code, as both country race days have continued to attract big crowds in an era when city attendances have dwindled.

However the two venues don't have the facilities to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

The St Marys meeting won't be replaced.

The club indicated last month that it wasn't prepared to hold the meeting.

Tasracing held off on making an official announcement while it offered the club assistance but ultimately the situation didn't change.

Mowbray will now host the Scottsdale program, still on Friday January 8, in a twilight timeslot with Sky 2 coverage.

Tasracing has also made three other changes to the harness calendar.

The meeting scheduled for Hobart on Friday February 12 will now be a twilight program on Sunday February 14 with Sky 1 coverage.

And, the meetings scheduled for Launceston on Friday March 19 and Hobart on Sunday March 21 have swapped places.

Beauty Point trainer Troy Hillier is not surprisingly aiming higher with his recent New Zealand import Racketeer's Boy.

After a runaway win in Rating 57-63 company at his Tasmanian debut, Racketeer's Boy repeated the performance in a Rating 60-64 race at Mowbray on Sunday night.

Hillier now has his sights on next month's Golden Apple at the same track.

"It's a good race and it would be nice to win it," the trainer said.

"He'd be off the front although his standing-start manners in New Zealand weren't so good.

"He had two runs from a stand and missed it a fair way at one of them."

Hillier finished third with Illegal Immigrant in the inaugural Golden Apple final in 2018 and fourth with the same horse last year.

The Golden Apple is a conditioned handicap based on national ratings, with 0-86 off the front; 87-93 off 10m; 94-104 off 20m; and 105-plus off 30m.

Blame It On Me's win in the $50,000 Bandbox Stakes at Mowbray on Sunday night capped an amazing comeback from serious injury.

But the star filly is not far away from presenting owner-trainer Doug Nettlefold with another problem - where to race her.

"One more win and she's up against the free-for-allers which makes it very hard," Nettlefold said.

Blame It On Me has won nine of her 13 starts but her record could be even better if she hadn't spent a long period on the sidelines.

"She fractured the pastern (bone) in her offside hind leg," Nettlefold said.

"We owe special thanks to Tom Russell from the mainland who flew in to screw her leg back together - it's full credit to him for getting her back on the track.

"She's got three screws in her leg but (since the operation) we haven't had a hiccup."

Nettlefold said time away from racing may have been a blessing in disguise.

"It probably made her a better horse in one respect because she had that enforced break which enabled her to grow and mature a bit," he said.

The Mowbray meeting confirmed the likely outcome of one $50,000 final at Devonport this week but threw up a new contender for the other.

Still Hungover was dominant winning the qualifying heat of the Granny Smith and will be a hot favourite to make it two Sires Stake finals in a row.

Proven performer Resurgent Storm was the quickest of the two Raider Stakes heat winners but a new kid on the block, Pardoe Plugga, created a big impression winning the second.

The Leigh Rand-trained gelding upset hot favourite Mister Gently but the win certainly wasn't unexpected.

Punters launched into Pardoe Plugga when markets opened, sending his price tumbling from $8 into the red, before he eased late to close at $3.20.

Driver Ben Parker said the four-year-old "got to the line strongly" and the extra distance of the final (2665m) didn't worry him.

"If he draws good in the final and gets a run like he did tonight he's probably going to be right in it," Parker said.

Ricky Duggan expressed similar sentiments about Still Hungover.

"The extra distance won't hurt her - we've just got to hope she draws a gate which, as everyone knows, makes a big difference at Devonport."

Duggan said everything worked out nicely in the heat when Still Hungover settled one out and four back.

"I knew the early burn would tell on the front-runners," he said

"I had to go four deep down the back because I was behind Resolute Ruler who was going nowhere but I was able to tuck in rounding the corner and give her a bit of a breather.

"She dashed beautifully up the straight which she can do in that class."

The Tasmanian Turf Club will honour the late Shane Yates with a memorial race at its $100,000 3YO Cup meeting at Mowbray next week.

Yates' family will be providing a trophy for the race which, fittingly, has been scheduled for one of the two feature meetings of the spring.

The $100,000 Newmarket Handicap, the state's premier sprint, will be run the following week.

Yates, regarded as one of the state's best-ever racecallers in all three codes, died in May aged 60 after a 10-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

He called his first race at the age of 16 and had a 44-year career in sport and the media.