Vicbred semi-final showdowns all set to light up Melton

A mouth-watering three-year-old showdown between the harness racing colts and geldings will kick-start a special Vicbred Super Series semi-finals night this Saturday at Melton.

Heat winners Perfect Class (Captaintreacherous), The Real Sherlock (Vincent) and Dangerous (Sweet Lou) will lock horns in the opening event on the card, which is the first of 12 qualifiers for rich Group 1 finals the following weekend.

Rosanna Rebel and Petracca won the other 3YO C&G heats at Ballarat last week and clash in the second of the semis later in the evening.

Gary and Debbie Quinlan’s Sahara Breeze is the sole heat winner in semi-final one of the three-year-old fillies’ division, while fellow victors from last week in Little Miss Lily, Sweet Bella and Soho Seraphine are set to battle in the second showdown.

Emma Stewart-trained Kingman, Bay Of Biscay and Stormryder won the three two-year-old heats for the colts and geldings at Kilmore last Tuesday and will clash in the first semi on Saturday night. Stablemate Vague Beauty and Geoff Webster’s Elusive both won qualifiers for the two-year-old fillies, but have drawn opposite semis this weekend. The other heat for the juvenile girls was abandoned, meaning automatic field selection points were used to determine which horses progressed to the next stage of the series.

In the four-year-old colts and geldings’ division, Aaron Dunn’s heat winners Hot Deal and Eyethink will clash in semi number one, with Solesseo Matuca the sole last-start victor in the other showdown.

Stewart trained the winners of all three heats for the four-year-old mares and they have all drawn to clash in the first of the semi-finals on Saturday night. Major Grace has gate three, Amore Vita has five and Soho Historia seven.

The top six horses over the line in each semi progress to rich finals the following Saturday night at Melton. A total of $1.5 million in prizemoney will go up for grabs across the 12 Group 1 features.

Rob Auber, Kirsten Graham and Steve Cleave will head up this Saturday night’s TrotsVision broadcast alongside caller Dan Mielicki, with the coverage to start shortly before the first race at 5.34pm.

Barrier draws for the finals will not be carried out on Saturday night, rather revealed as part of the fields release next week.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria