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While premier trainer Scott Brunton looks set to dominate the show day meeting at Hobart with 28 acceptors, at the other end of the scale, David Keating is hoping to saddle up a winner with one of the two horses he will take to the track as a first-time solo trainer.
Keating 36, has a wide and varied background, having started out as an apprentice in Melbourne before shifting to Tasmania and transferring his indentures to the late Hall Of Fame trainer Terry Roles.
He rode his first winner for Roles, O'Connor Street in Launceston and at one stage was the state's leading apprentice.
Since giving the riding game away, Keating has gained invaluable experience working for some of the leading stables around the country including Gai Waterhouse, Peter Snowden, Garry Portelli, David Hayes, and leviathan owner Lloyd Williams where he rode Melbourne Cup winners in track work.
Back in Tasmania, Keating trained successfully in partnership with Graeme McCulloch and worked alongside Glenn Stevenson in recent years.
Now the self-proclaimed "late maturer" Keating is going it alone with a stable at Longford where he has seven horses in work and is pre-training another 15 for some of the state's leading trainers.
In Hobart he will saddle up first starter Strike Impact in a 1420m maiden and last start winner Epic Song, a recent addition to the Keating stable, transferring from Tanya Hanson who Keating says has been a wonderful help.
Strike Impact has trialled twice, placing last time against better horses than he will meet on debut. Epic Song, who is also entered for Launceston on Friday night, looks to be a winning chance in the 1100m BM 62. Four kilo claiming apprentice Taylor Johnstone will ride the lightly raced 3YO who comes off a three-length win at Devonport.
The Hobart Show Day meeting replaces the COVID abandoned meeting from last Saturday and although fresh nominations were called, the fields remain much the same.
The best bet on the program looks to be the Brunton-trained Vallabar in race six, who caught the eye last time in Launceston, flashing home to finish just behind the placegetters.
Racing gets underway at noon and it's an early finish at 15.27 with venue cleaning needed for the regular Thursday night greyhound meeting.
