Quill's ‘Major' Classic Claims

A favourable box two draw in Monday's TAB Illingworth Classic Final (515m) at Launceston looks to work in Major Innings favour as he attempts to give prominent owners John Quill and Ricky Ponting their first classic win in Tasmania.

Major Innings, who hadn't raced since contesting the heats of the Launceston Cup in February, has now won his last three in succession and looked impressive running best of night figures of 29.72 from box three in the opening qualifier on Monday night.

The locally-bred son of Barcia Bale and Flash Innings flew the boxes to lead comfortably through the first turn, left untouched the brindle chaser was dominant throughout, running away for a 3 ¾ length victory over Leica Prayer with Buckle Up Rhonan third.

It was Major Innings' tenth career victory from 24 starts, his third win in Tasmania.

Watch Major Innings' heat win here

https://youtu.be/WOhbCfWT8uM

"He is a nice dog that showed a lot of promise early days," stated part-owner John Quill.

"Graeme Lawson (trainer) has done a great job with the dog since he came into his kennels. Monday's win showed the dog is finally on the right track. Jeff Britton prepared the dog at the start of his career and was going pretty well for him in Victoria.

"He sent the dog to Sydney to contest the heats of the National Derby in January but didn't pull up that well from that so we decided to give Major Innings a short let up and bring him over to contest the heats of the Launceston Cup. Luck just didn't go his way in that."

Spelled for two weeks following the cup series, Major Innings resumed for Beaconsfield-based Lawson, winning over the 278m at Launceston, the beginning of a winning sequence which netted a 25.95 victory at Devonport, leading into Monday's Illingworth Classic heat success.

"Major Innings has missed the start on a couple of occasions so Graeme has tried a few things just to keep the dog guessing and on Monday in the heats he flew out of the boxes which was great," Quill explained.

Favouring an inside draw, Quill was please to find out that his exciting chaser had draw box two in the final.

"Couldn't be happier with that," John said.

"Ricky Martin has two smart dogs in the race particularly Leica Prayer (Jillian Stamford) who ran a great second behind our bloke in the heats. Flash Comet is a good bitch and is strong at the finish – they are drawn either side of Major Innings.

"You need luck in these races and the dog has drawn his box so it will be interesting that's for sure, I have been in dogs for nearly 50 years and Ricky (Pointing) and my son Tim (Quill) race Major Innings in partnership.

"Ricky and I have been good friends for just over 20 years now and that goes back to the days of White City. We've raced some good dogs together in that time and have had some success along the way, but this is a race I'd really like to win being named in honour of Des Illingworth."

TAB Illingworth Classic Box Draw: Flash Comet 1, Major Innings 2, Leica Prayer 3, Buckle Up Noah 4, Rip The Bandaid 5, Buckle Up Azona 6, Buckle Up Kiona 7, Buckle Up Fraya 8 / Reserves: Buckle Up Nola and Jalla Romelda.