Tamworth accountant and hobby harness trainer Jamie Donovan is celebrating his maiden metropolitan win after Fast Tracker defeated a quality field to win the fourth heat of the Carousel series at Menangle on Saturday night.
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The time-honoured series has stood the test of time, continuing to be one of those traditional races that many owners and trainers yearn to win.
Donovan will have that chance this coming Saturday (September 23) with Saturday's heat win qualifying Fast Tracker for the $50,000 final.
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Driven by Jack Trainor, the five-year-old gelding went into the race as an $18 outsider but he belied that assessment, coming from a midfield trailing position and showing a brilliant turn of foot to overpower his rivals and score a narrow win over the Roy Roots-trained Indasky.
The win was a huge thrill for the former Queenslander, who pointed out after the race that Fast Tracker was just his second starter at Headquarters and his first winner at metropolitan level.
"I am still on cloud nine to be honest," Donovan said.
"We had been to Menangle once before and it was not the result we had hoped for.
"But this time it was a much easier drive home, that's for sure.
"Our bloke was given the perfect trip by Jack.
"When he got the breaks at the 400 metre mark, I was confident that he would hit the line strongly and he proved me right, showing a great will to win over the concluding stages."
Donovan, whose wife Rachel is in the ownership group, purchased the son of RocknRoll Heaven just three weeks ago from prominent Queensland owner Kevin Seymour, who was scaling back numbers from his current racing stock.
And after pleasing him with some handy hit-outs in trackwork and a solid second at Newcastle a week later, Donovan knew he had a nice horse on his hands.
"Grant Dixon had mentioned to us that Kevin was looking to scale back on the numbers he had racing, and we were in the market to buy another horse to race, so it just worked out perfectly," he said.
"Fast Tracker gave me a really good feel from the outset, so I went looking for a nice race to place him in."
