The eight-year-old comes up against a high quality field in the Open Handicap over 1120m but Trinder is confident he should be "more than competitive".

Liffeybeau was having his first start for more than 10 months when sixth to Algernon in the Winzenberg Quality at Elwick a fortnight ago, beaten just under two lengths.

"My last two runners have gone shocking and I put that down to a failure on my part," Trinder said.

"I'd been feeding them a lot of boiled barley and, although they looked magnificent in the mounting yard, I think they were just too big on the inside.

"And, the last 100m it was showing."

Trinder said he thought Liffeybeau had the Hobart race "under control" with 100m to go.

"Brendon (McCoull) said if he'd drawn an inside barrier he would have gone very close but, having said that, I was still disappointed with his last 100m - he just didn't finish off," the trainer said.

"He lost ground after almost reaching the front - it was a below-expectation run."

Trinder has since changed Liffeybeau's diet, with a big cutback in his barley, and expects him to strip much fitter second-up.

"I also think he will improve with the likely fast pace - I'm sure Deroche will go out and make it a genuinely-run 1100m," the trainer said.

Trinder concedes Liffeybeau is in the twilight of his career but believes the Magnus gelding has "one or two more wins left in him".

"He's still very active with no soundness issues and he can soldier on for another season," the trainer said.

Trinder's other former stable star Toorak Affair has been sold as a broodmare after 14 wins including the 2020 Hobart Cup.

"She went through the sales in Melbourne and brought $165,000 which was good money considering she's by Toorak Toff who has a service fee of only $4000," the trainer said.

The Devonport Cup is about the only major race to elude the most successful Tasmanian reinsman of the modern era.

But Latrobe-based Gareth Rattray hopes to rectify that situation on Saturday night when he drives the well-backed Racketeers Boy in the $40,000 feature.

A firmer from $23 into $11, Racketeers Boy is well drawn in barrier two and Rattray is hoping the Troy Hillier-trained gelding can step to the front.

"If you can lead at Devonport you're halfway there but, if you can't, you just have to play it by ear," Rattray said.

"I have never driven the horse in a race but I drove him in a trial a while back and he went away good from a stand.

"He also won a standing-start race (the Show Cup) at Mowbray a few runs back so I expect him to begin well.

"But he can also get home well off a sit so I'll just have to adapt to whatever happens during the race."

Rattray rates Ryley Major and Mister Gently as two of his main dangers.

"You'd have to think the backmarkers will be the hardest to beat and, of those off the front, Mister Gently is good from a stand and has to be a chance," the driver said.

A winner of 11 of the past 16 Tasmanian drivers' premierships, Rattray had his first Devonport Cup outing as a 16-year-old in 2002.

He finished sixth on Barringtonboutique behind a handy horse called Flashing Red.

The closest he's come to winning the race was in 2006 when he drove The Grouse into third place behind Terrific Lass and Fleet Express.

A win on Racketeers Boy would give him a full set of the state's three major cups.

He won the Tasmania Cup on Motu Crusader in 2013 and the Easter Cup on Scooterwillrev last year.

Saturday night's program also includes the Coastal Pacing Thousand, in its heyday a prestigious series that took in the three tracks at Devonport, Burnie and Ulverstone, with two rounds of heats and a final.

The other $12,000 races on the 10-event card are heats of the Jane Ellen and Sinbad Bay, the Mares Incentive and Dash For Cash.

3.20 Ryley Major

4.00 Lip Reader

6.50 Rock On Playboy

8.50 Be Major Threat

9.00 Mister Gently

9.50 Resurgent Storm

11.00 Racketeers Boy

13.00 Smart Little Shard

13.00 Izaha

151.00 others

TAB fixed odds