Our Princess Tiffany will again have to overcome a back row draw but starts behind a very different front row in the second leg of the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown.
While four Emma Stewart runners made much of the front running in Saturday’s Benstud Make Mine Cullen, none back-up for Friday night’s Angelique Club Pace, which is part of an 11-race card at Tabcorp Park Melton.
Stewart’s Techys Angel, Amelia Rose and Maajida will instead pile into the night's DNR Logistics Argent 3YO Classic. In their place two former Stewart runners, Nostra Villa and Speak No Evil, will feature among leg two of the mares series.
Both were dual Group 1 winners for Stewart but have more recently raced in Sydney, with Nostra Villa in the hands of trainer-driver Brad Hewitt and Speak No Evil to debut for trainer-driver Amanda Turnbull.
Horse | Points |
Our Princess Tiffany | 8 |
Maajida | 5 |
Goodtime Heaven | 3 |
Rock N Roll Chapel | 2 |
Pick Up Line | 1 |
The stakes are particularly high for Our Princess Tiffany, who is being trained by Dean Braun for her Victorian assault, with the Crown carrying a $20,000 bonus for any horse that can sweep the series and a $10,000 bonus to the horse with the most points across the series.The latter had most recently been with Craig Cross’s New South Wales stable, which will also be well represented on Friday night with Dracarys and No Win No Feed in the mares field.
The series concludes with the $100,000 Benstud Queen Of The Pacific at Tabcorp Park Melton on October 31.
Brought forward a night to avoid a clash with the AFL grand final, Friday night’s card features four Group-level races, including The Big Screen Company Tatlow stakes for both the two-year-old fillies and the colts and geldings.
The $50,000 Group 2 race offers another chance to get a feel for the likely lead combatants in the TAB Breeders Crown, which kicks off on November 4, and December’s Vicbred Super Series, which will play out on New Year’s Eve.
The fillies will clash at 6.58pm and here the Stewart camp fronts with eight of the 13 entrants, including the fab five Platinum Sparkle (gate one), Beach Music (gate three), Ladies In Red (gate five), emergency Rogue Wave (gate 10) and Tough Tilly (gate 11), who filled the first five placings in the Alabar Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic final.
On that occasion they stopped the clock in 1:51.9, an extraordinary 1.6 seconds under the age/distance track record, when they finished within 2.6 metres of each other.
Clayton Tonkin and Stewart also have six in the colts and geldings’ final, which will stream on Trots Vision at 9.33pm, with nine of the 12 starters all having won at their last start.
The night also features the TAB Long May We Play Bold David Free For All, with Victoria Cup combatants Rishi, Cruz Bromac, Tam Major and Code Black among those fronting.
And there is even more Group 1 class on display in the Aldebaran Park True Roman Trotters Free For All, where Red Hot Tooth (gate five) has drawn inside Dance Craze (gate six), while Wobelee (gate nine) and McLovin (gate 10) will plan their attack from the back row.
HRV – Michael Howard