Durazzo gets the chance to underline his claim as the best horse in Tasmania

Durazzo gets the chance to underline his claim as the best horse in Tasmania. Crack The Shutters can confirm she is the most promising 3yo in the state, and it’s the first look at this season’s 2yo crop.

All this and more at the Launceston meeting on Wednesday night.

Durazzo, coming off a narrow but impressive Newmarket win, will step up to the WFA $125,000 PFD Food Services Conquering Stakes (1400m), while Crack The Shutters, an emphatic winner in the 3yo Cup (1200m), looks even better suited over the 1400m of the $75,000 BWS 3yo Trophy.

Only six horses have accepted for the Trophy, and Crack The Shutters will be a hot favourite, having won all three starts this campaign and four from six overall, with two placings.

In Launceston, a little more than a fortnight ago, over 1200m, Crack The Shutters burst to lead in the home straight, and it was an ever-increasing margin.

Her trainer, Stuart Gandy, has always said she will be better over longer trips, and this will be her first try at 1400m.

“For an Alpine Eagle, she’s years ahead of her age. She’s just such a laid-back filly and can really quicken up; the sky’s the limit,” Gandy said after her Cup win.

Gandy is even toying with the idea of tackling a Group 3 race like the $150,000 WFA Mystic Journey (1200m) on Hobart Cup Day with Crack The Shutters.

Gandy looks set to dominate the first 2yo race of the season with four acceptors, and all have trialled well. Graeme McCulloch has accepted with three, while John Blacker trains the other two in the nine-horse field, which opens the night of racing.

In the space of 12 months, Durazzo went from a Newmarket emergency in 2024 to an odds-on favourite and winner 12 months later.

“Only good horses do that don’t they, he’s just a ripper,” trainer Barry Campbell said.

Campbell always thought the Newmarket Handicap was going to be a danger race for Durazzo and is confident weight-for-age conditions will far better suit him.

“If he meets the second horse again (Just Cruisin’, runner-up in Newmarket), he meets him six or seven kilos better. When he gets to weight for age, he’s going to take some beating.

“It’s well documented he’s been to hell and back. He’s got screws in his legs, he spent three months never taking a step outside his box, he spent about six months in rehabilitation.”

Despite the early career setbacks, Durazzo has now raced 13 times for nine wins and more than $420,000 in prize money and looks likely to dominate most of the feature WFA races over the Ladbrokes Summer Racing Festival.

In what looks to be a cracking night of racing, the first race gets underway at 17:29. If you can’t be trackside, Matt Reid and Colin McNiff will have all the action on Tasracing Live and Sky Thoroughbred Central.