Soho Angel scored a well-deserved harness racing victory in tonight’s $50,575 Renown Silverware Tatlow Stakes at Tabcorp Park Melton.
The win gave Burrumbeet trainer-driver Michael Stanley his second two-year-old fillies’ feature race triumph in a fortnight after Petacular’s Vicbred Super Series success earlier this month.
Soho Angel (Bettor's Delight/Soho Champagne) ran third in the Vicbred final but was supreme tonight from gate three in an action-packed race that saw three horses involved in a bad fall and driver Zac Phillips taken to hospital for scans on his arm.
Four Be Two (Phillips) and Jiggy Rhythm (Josh Aiken) locked wheels down the side the final time, and as they were trying to unhook from one another Arm A Princess (Jason Lee) took a tumble while travelling ahead of them. The resultant tangle saw the trio of drivers catapulted to the track.
Lee and Aiken were cleared by medical staff to fulfil their remaining drives, but Phillips was taken to hospital with a suspected arm injury. All horses got to their feet and were walked off the track but Arm A Princess was transferred to Werribee Equine Hospital for tests.
Meanwhile, Soho Angel bolted clear of her rivals at the top of the straight and went on to score by 3.6m over a fast-finishing Miss Dangerfield (Greg Sugars) with Perfect Sense (Mark Pitt) third in a mile rate of 1:58.7.
A member of owner-breeder Rob Watson’s Soho team, Soho Angel now boasts four wins from 10 starts for stake money approaching $100,000.
New South Wales husband and wife team Shane and Lauren Tritton combined to win the Apco Tatlow Stakes for colts and geldings with their rising star Blue Moon Rising (Santanna Blue Chip/Lady Moonlight).
Now a winner of six of seven lifetime starts, Blue Moon Rising led and defied all comers from the pole to score a 7.7m win over fast-finishing Our Little General (Pitt), with Manly Mach (Greg Sugars) third in a 1:56.7 mile rate.
“He’s not paid up for anything so it’s good to get a win like this,” Lauren Tritton said post-race.
“All the horses who have won the big races at home he’s beaten them.”
Tritton said Blue Moon Rising would go to the paddock for a spell before “coming back bigger and better as a three-year-old”.
Cody Winnell