Ileana ready to make a big impact on debut

Ileana (Captaintreacherous) will have her work cut out in a harness racing heat of the Billies Legends Nutrien Equine series for two-year-old pacing fillies at Ballarat.

That’s the thoughts of trainer-driver Ken Tippet, who reckons the pacer is showing all the signs of being a real force in 12-months’ time but will find it tough in Thursday night’s qualifiers.

“It’s going to be hard for her. She has trialled okay, she does everything okay and she is a professional little horse, but we have been thrown in the deep end,” Tippet said.

“When you have paid up for these series, you have just got to have a crack at them.”

The 69-year-old horseman is confident that the bay filly will eventually reap rewards on the track.

“She is a beautiful filly to look at and so I think she will just build into herself and be a work in progress over time,” he said.

Ilena is by Captaintreacherous out of The Archduchess, who raced on 37 occasions for 12 wins and amassed over $281,000 in prizemoney.

“She is by Captaintrecherous, and I just think somewhere down the track she will make a nice little broodmare for sure,” he said.

Ilean trialed at Bacchus Marsh for Tippet ahead of race day.

“She had two trials at Bacchus Marsh. In her first, she was going to run into it and she got bogged down. It was pretty heavy on the inside and she just lost a bit of momentum,” he said.

“The second one, she came out and there were three in it. They were older horses and she settled three back the fence, she pulled out at the top of the straight and got past one.”

Ilena has drawn six for the $10,000 heat with an eye towards qualification for the $250,000 final on April 20 at Melton Entertainment Park.

“It’s all about experience and that’s how we will have to deal with it on Thursday night,” Tippet said.

Thursday’s card will also feature heats of the Nutrien Equine series for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Lachlan Mitchell, for Harness Racing Victoria