This team can do it here, there and everywhere

There was a time when some argued Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin were harness racing flat track bullies.

Well, technically, the assertion was they were almost unstoppable in their own backyard, but somewhat reluctant to travel and vulnerable when they did.

Hasn’t that changed.

Any trainer will tell you it’s hard to leave a big team at home and travel, especially when you’ve got maybe 100 in work and youngsters coming through the ranks all the time, but Stewart and Tonkin are now lethal when they do hit the road (or the plane).

We saw it yet again at Albion Park on Saturday night where they had five runners across four races and won three of them, including two of the features.

They netted three wins and a fourth in the $150,000 Golden Girl with Soho Historia in a race they won with a stablemate Amore Vita (Art Major).

The only runner “down the track” was Mach Dan and that certainly wasn’t his fault. He was strung-up behind leader Betterzippit, who stopped as if shot at the 400m in the Group 1 Sunshine Sprint. Poor Mach Dan went from bolting in a great spot to game over in the blink of an eye.

It was a huge result for the stable after an exasperating few weeks trying to juggle which of their stable stars should go to Queensland and how to get them there with difficulties getting suitable flights and some prohibitive costs to do so.

Stewart and Tonkin had clearly been energized by taking Ladies In Red north last year – when many felt they wouldn’t do so – and having her romp home in the Group 1 Rising Sun against the boys.

The plan this time was to take as many as 15 of their stars to Brisbane for a month and train them out of a bank of stalls at Grant Dixon’s stable, the man behind pacing sensation and Sunshine Sprint winner Leap To Fame.

That was canned when getting all the horses north became problematic because of the flight issues.

But Plan B, for all the juggling required, has worked just fine and there’s still another week and some big prizes to come next Saturday night.

Last Saturday night’s romp started with Kiwi-owned mare Amore Vita, who Stewart described as a “work in progress” when she first joined the stable last October.

Amore Vita had enjoyed huge success at two and three for Nathan Purdon out of Victoria, but a bad experience at Redcliffe around this time last year got her into bad habits, most notably a want to severely over-race.

After defeats at her first four starts for Stewart and Tonkin, Amore Vita “clicked” to finish 2023 with wins in a semi-final and final of the Vicbred 3YO series.

She’s only had four runs this season for two wins and two seconds. The wins have been in major races, and the seconds have been in Australia’s biggest mares’ race at Menangle and to stablemate Mach Dan at Melton.

To come from last, around the whole field without cover, and find so much after appearing to be struggling at the 400m, was some sort of win in the Golden Girl.

“She was full tilt at the 500m, but just kept on trucking,” driver Chris Alford said.

AMORE VITA REPLAY

It took her record to 31 starts for 15 wins, 11 placings and $555,053 and emphatically stamped her as the best mare in the land (with Ladies In Red still sidelined).

Soho Historia’s effort to blast to the front in a 25.8sec opening quarter – 1.1sec faster than they went in the Sunshine Sprint – and still fight on for fourth was also first rate.

Fittingly, given the stabling offer from Grant Dixon, Tonkin and Stewart gave the reins to Dixon’s wife, Trista, aboard raw but exciting colt Balboa Rocks (Rock N Roll Heaven) for his easy win in the $156,000 Brisbane APG final.

“It sort of came out of nowhere,” Dixon said. “I understood driving him in the heat, but when they said I could stay on for the final it was a thrill.”

Balboa Rocks sat behind leader and plunge runner Synchronizer, and blew him away along the sprint lane.

Then came the excitement machine, The Lost Storm (Captaintreacherous), who looks like the benchmark three-year-old in Australia and potentially Australasia. Kiwi star Merlin has some serious form on the board, but The Lost Storm oozes class, power and potential.

He’s won nine of his 11 starts and has next Saturday night’s Group 1 Queensland Derby at his mercy.

Then comes a far greater challenge, but one driver Mark Pitt thinks The Lost Storm is up for … taking on Leap To Fame, Catch A Wave, Captain Ravishing and others in the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 2.

“I think he is the dark horse of the (Eureka) race,” Pitt said. “Those four-year-olds are amazing, but I think he (The Lost Storm) is a bit underrated at this stage.”

It seems a huge ask for a three-year-old to beat one of the best four-year-old crops we’ve ever seen, but he gets a preferential draw (probably the pole) and he’s got Tonkin and Stewart in his corner.

The TAB Eureka has been The Lost Storm’s focus since the end of last year.

by Adam Hamilton for Harness Racing Victoria