Top three-year-old trotter by Love You

The Love You filly Queen Elida NZ firmly established herself as the top Australian three-year-old of the season when she won the Group 1 $60,000 Victoria Trotters Oaks at Ballarat on Saturday (October 16).

Sent straight to the front, the filly survived some early pressure before zipping home in 58.2 seconds to prevail by almost a length.

Queen Elida has now won six of her 10 starts this year and $100,980 in stakes.

Love You was represented by two-year-old filly winners on both sides of the Tasman this week. One Thirtythree was a very impressive winner on debut at Addington, New Zealand, carving out her last 800 in 58.1 and the final 400 in 28.7, while Tough Love clocked a career-best 1:57.6 for the flying mile at Menangle, her fourth success in only eight appearances.

The three-year-olds Parisian Artiste, who won his third race at Charlton, and Luvaflair (Gloucester Park) were other recent winners sired by Love You.

Love You, whose semen is available from Haras Des Trotteurs stud, Ballarat, heads up the two-year-old sires’ list in NZ and the three-year-old table in Australia.

Companion sire Orlando Vici has unearthed another potential topliner in the two-year-old Cravache Dor, a brilliant winner at Kilmore recently. After going offstride in the early stages, the gelding circled the entire field in the last lap and trotted boldly to the wire to score by half a length. He is a very good youngster.

Orlando Vici can boast the amazing score of having sired 16 individual winners from 16 starters at an average of $41,560 per starter!

On the same card, the Quaker Jet four-year-old This Quaker blitzed his rivals in the novice trot, winning by 21 metres. The Love You horse also sired the Bankstown three-year-old winner Fancy and La Serena, who completed back-to-back successes at Geelong, and has left 17 winners from 23 starters from 40 foals of racing age.

By Peter Wharton