Teenager Abbey Vidovich is a rising star in WA harness racing, and she maintained her dazzling form in the sulky at Gloucester Park on Friday night when she drove Dame Valour to a smart all-the-way victory in the $27,000 Retravision Lowest Price Guarantee Pace over 2130m.
This gave 19-year-old Vidovich her 100TH success --- and her 96TH in a remarkable 2025 season.
“I’ve still got lots to learn,” she said as she explained that she has not come from a harness racing background. “Having a claim has definitely helped, and now with this win I have lost the claim.”
Vidovich was having her first drive for the powerful Aiden De Campo stable, and Dame Valour, the $3.90 equal second favourite, began from the No. 1 barrier, courtesy of Vidovich’s claim and the preference for mares.
Dame Valour won the start and after a modest lead time of 37.5sec. and comfortable opening quarters of 30.9sec. and 30.5sec. she sprinted home strongly with final 400m sections of 28.3sec. and 28sec. which saw her win by a neck from the fast-finishing Infinite Sign ($14), with veteran Cordero ($23) enjoying an inside passage to come from seventh at the bell to finish third, just ahead of the $3.20 favourite Mikis Pride, who wilted after racing without cover.
Dame Valour, a six-year-old by Sweet Lou, is the fourth foal out of Brush With Courage, who won the Western Crown for two-year-old fillies in May 2010 before being retired with earnings of $33,895 from three wins and two seconds from nine starts.
About 40 minutes after Dame Valour’s victory her younger half-sister Snakey Bay set the pace for young reinsman Lachlan Kennelly and won a 2185m event at Wagin.
Dame Valour, who is raced by Rob Tomlinson, Damien Keating and Peter Morris, was purchased for $58,000 at the 2020 Perth APG yearling sale and has now earned $123,420 from 11 wins, ten seconds and three thirds from 40 starts.
Tomlinson and Keating are part-owners of Maungatahi, who was a $8.80 chance ($18 on the fixed odds market) who won the RAC Members Pace over 2536m for trainer-reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green.
Maungatahi led for the first 440m and then trailed the frontrunning Sorridere ($3.40) before dashing to the front 100m from the finish. Sorridere, trained and driven by Aiden De Campo, is owned by Tomlinson, Keating and Morris.
