Sahara Breeze flies into Open Class

GROUP 1 winning pacer Sahara Breeze (Captaintreacherous) passed her initiation into open class mares harness racing ranks with flying colors at Melton. 

The Gary and Debbie Quinlan prepared four-year-old was sent out a $4.40 second elect behind the Emma Stewart trained Soho Historia ($1.70 fav) who,  as expected,  worked to the lead shortly after the start. 

Chris Alford allowed Sahara Breeze to lob along the at the rear of the field from her outside draw as Jilliby Willow put the leader to the test in a slick 26.6 back straight quarter. 

When Alford asked his charge for an effort Sahara Breeze rounded up her rivals coming from last around the home turn to score a last stride win by a neck from Soho Historia in a mile rate of 1:55.1. 

Debbie Quinlan conceded the race didn’t pan out as she had hoped. 

“The plan was to drive her with a sit and tag Jilliby Willow into the race but we had to go to plan B when Jason (Lee) made a mid-race move on Jilliby Willow,” Quinlan said. 

“But it’s all tempo related and when Jason put the pedal to the metal down the back it allowed our mare to use her sprint at the end of the race,” she said. 

Quinlan said Sahara Breeze was forced to race against her normal pattern of racing when placed behind Sweet Bella in the Group 1 Vicbred Super Series (4YO Mares) Final at her previous start. 

“It was a fast lead time and she had to work three wide to the death from barrier seven which used up a lot of her energy,” she said. 

Quinlan said Sahara Breeze will be aimed at the upcoming mares feature races before a potential trip to Sydney later in the year. 

“That’s all she’s got now is the big races because of the lack of mares races available,” she said. 

“After the triple crown down here we might take her up to Menangle for a feature race up there. 

The two turns and long straight at Menangle should suit her racing style where Chris can drive her with a sit and come with one run at them.” 

The win took Sahara Breeze’s record to 11 wins and seven placings from 25 career starts for more than $240,000 in stake earnings. 

For complete race results, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink