2016 Howard Ashton Review
Leading local trainer Ben Rawlings continued his good run of recent success last night at Angle Park by winning the feature Group 3 Howard Ashton final with the exciting Wilba Beast.
Wilba Beast is owned by Ben and was bred by his mother Tanya with all on hand last to celebrate is brilliant performance. The final featured some of the brightest young chasers in the State with Wilba Beast sent out one of the favourites along with Harbormaster, Team Roper and Paddy McBain.
As the start was affected Wilba Beast from box 3 exploded out of the boxes to lead running a slick 4.31 to the winning post. He was hotly pursued by Paddy McBain for Todd Kelly and Team Roper for Alan McCulloch with Harbormaster for Kirin Corby pushing forward. Down the back straight and Wilba Beast slipped away from his rivals leaving the back straight in a flying 16.64 with a race winning break. Team Roper, Paddy McBain and Harbormaster were all battling out the minors with McLaren Missile starting to make ground for Tania Foster from midfield. The big oncourse crowd cheered in the home straight with Wilba Beast securing victopry by 2 lengths in a brilliant 29.66 from Team Roper who battled on strongly along with Paddy McBain a further 1 ¾ lengths back in third. McLaren Missile got home hard into fourth place. The high quality and evenness of the field was reflective in four of the runners breaking 30 seconds and there were only 9 lengths from first to last.
Wilba Beast has now won 15 races from his 26 starts including 6 minor placings and prizemoney around $44,000.