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Seven Victorian horses will be on a mission to restore some pride to Victorian harness racing next month.
A disturbing statistic went largely unnoticed earlier this month when the Miracle Mile was run without a Victorian-trained contestant.
It’s the first time that’s happened since Baby Bling won the April, 2013 Miracle Mile. Since then, Victorians have won or been placed in all 10 Miracle Mile held, until this year. Yes, Catch A Wave (Captaintreacherous) did win it last year.
But no Victorian-trained runners back on March 9 is remarkable and worrying.
That said, Victorians get the chance to pretty much immediately bounce-back across three “mega” slot races in the space of a week in April.
But, to do so, they will have to defy recent history in both New Zealand and Western Australia.
It’s been almost nine years since a Victorian-trained pacer has won a major Group 1 race in either NZ or WA.
Arden Rooney won the NZ Cup in November, 2015 for Kerryn Manning.
The following month, the David Aiken-trained Lennytheshark won the Perth Inter Dominion at Gloucester Park. Former star mare Nike Franco added to the strong Victorian influence when she won the Group 1 Mares’ Classic at that same meeting.
Team Victoria almost certainly looks finalised now, boosted by the late addition of Catch A Wave as the sole representative in the $1.25mil Group 1 Nullarbor at Gloucester Park on April 19.
At his top, he would be the horse to beat.
Catch A Wave will have a rare luxury in today’s pool of Australasian pacing talent to chase serious coin without having to contend with Australia’s two best pacers, Leap To Fame and Swayzee, or any of the exciting new young Kiwi pacing talent.
While all trainers will tell you how hard it is to go to Perth and beat their best in major races, it’s worth noting NSW raiders Betterzippit and Spirit Of St Louis did fill the quinella in last year’s inaugural Nullarbor.
And the best version of Catch A Wave is better than that pair.
Trainer Andy Gath was more frustrated than disappointed with Catch A Wave’s narrow defeat at Melton last Saturday night.
“He pulled up blowing hard like he really needed the run. It had been a month between runs,” he said. “We’ve stepped-up his work and thought we had him ready, but he’s bigger and older now and clearly needs racing.
“So, we’ll back him up again at Melton next Saturday. There’s a 1720m free-for-all. Then the plane goes to Perth (from Sydney) on April 8, so he can race at Gloucester Park on April 12 to top him right off for the Nullarbor.”
Victoria’s greatest strength, numbers and hopes sit in NZ, specifically the first running of the $NZ575,000 TAB Trot slot race at Cambridge on April 12.
Built to cater for the trotters and add to the already big Race By Grins night at Cambridge, the TAB Trot will be the strongest trotting race this part of the world has seen since Pride Of Petite upstaged a stellar field with a remarkable win in the 1997 Inter Dominion final at Globe Derby.
And Victoria-trained raiders make-up half the field, headed by globetrotting champ Just Believe.
He’s ably supported by the international Group 1 winner and immensely talented Callmethebreeze, now trained by Anton Golino and raced by Pat Driscoll’s Yabby Dams.
Then there’s the almost forgotten Queen Elida.
It’s crucial to remember she gets the huge advantage, and it’s massive around the tight Cambridge bends, of a guaranteed pole draw being the only mare in the field under the preferential barrier draw conditions.
Yes, Queen Elida was beaten against her own sex on a rare occasion last Saturday night at Melton, but she smashed the clock with a 1min56.1sec last mile after coming from so far back in a race dominated by leader and winner Im Ready Jet.
Arcee Phoenix is the newbie to such races, but he’s already shown the talent to mix it with the big boys despite how high the bar is set in this crop.
His second to Just Believe in the Grand Prix recently was at least as good a run as the winner.
by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria
