Victoria's most prolific trainer of trotters, Anton Golino, has won Australia’s richest trotting classic, the $250,000 Woodlands Great Southern Star, with a mare that pedigree buffs would say was always destined for harness racing greatness.
Blueblood Dance Craze, a daughter of champion trotter and brilliant producer Muscle Hill out of another superstar performer in La Coocaracha, was a minute back in the run but sprinted furiously up the Tabcorp Park Melton straight at the end of the 2760m journey to capture the Group 1.
The five-year-old raced clear of Kiwi star Temporale for a 1.4-metre win in a 1:58.8 mile rate, with Michael Stanley-trained Sky Petite backing up her TAB Inter Dominion Trotting Grand Final placing with another Classic podium finish tonight.
Winning driver Mark Purdon was ecstatic to be involved with Golino’s greatest win thus far.
“He does a great job and I’m thrilled to be involved with this win,” Purdon said.
Golino was over the moon.
“This is a dream come true,” he said before honouring his biggest backer Pat Driscoll and his passionate and hard-working team of staff.
“He’s an amazing person and he deserves this more than anyone,” Golino said of Driscoll.
The win gave Purdon a double Group 1 half-hour of power after he guided Dean Braun-trained mare Carlas Pixel to a barnstorming victory in the Schweppes Ladyship Cup.
Of the rest, odds-on race favourite Marcoola only beat one runner home, finishing second last for Ken and Clint Ford, while Red Hot Tooth and Tough Monarch both performed strongly finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
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ID18 champ Tornado Valley was scratched from the GSS this morning when a long odds-on favourite.
Trots Media – Cody Winnell