Heza Punk Rocker Photo by Stuart McCormick
CHAMPION trainer Emma Stewart took her Vicbred dominance to a new level by winning all six Group 1 pacing finals at Melton last night.
It capped the most staggering of Vicbred series’ for Australia’s leading stable. It started by winning all eight races on heats night at Kilmore on August 29 and continued with wins in nine of the 12 semi-finals at Melton on September 7.
Stewart, who had a remarkable 34 finalists last night, opened the night by snaring the quinella in the $150,000 4YO entires and geldings final with Heza Punk Rocker and Perfect Class.
She then had the first five across the line in the $150,000 3YO colts and geldings final, won by Miki To Success.
Iveseenheavenslight beat favourite Let Her Roll to give Stewart the quinella in the 2YO fillies’ final.
Her most exciting winner of the night was the big, raw and untapped Always Hot, who led home her first four across the line in the $150,000 2YO colts and geldings final.
Amazingly, Stewart had seven runners in the 3YO fillies final, and they were the first seven across the line, with Showsomejoy winning.
In contrast, Stewart’s only runner in the 4YO mares’ final, Sweet Bella, thrashed her rivals by 12m in a blistering 1min53.7sec mile rate for 2240m.
Stewart, 42, has trained 3220 winners, including an impressive 140 at Group 1 level.
The driving honours were shared with stable driver Mark Pitt (Showsomejoy and Sweet Bella) and the emerging Jackie Barker (Miki To Success and Iveseenheavenslight) snaring doubles, while James Herbertson (Heza Punk Rocker) and Greg Sugars (Always Hot) landing one each.
Barker, 28, was the other story of the night, going into the meeting with 503 wins but none at the Group 1 level.
“To win one (Group 1) was amazing, but adding a second is incredible,” Barker said. “This is a night I’ll never forget.”
Herbertson, 24, also snared his first Group 1 pacing win. His previous five wins at the top level had been on trotters.
The other big talking point of the night was the win of brilliant young trotter Keayang Zahra in the 3YO fillies’ final. It was her sixth win from as many starts.
“We think she’s very, very good,” driver Jason Lee said. “There’s talk she could go to that big NZ race, which would be pretty cool.”
That race is the $500,000 Ascent at Addington in Christchurch on November 15.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
