Our Princess Tiffany will race on Victorian soil on Saturday night for the first time since her shock defeat in the 2019 Breeders Crown, with the brilliant mare to launch her quest for a new series sweep.
Leg one of the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown kicks off at Tabcorp Park Melton with the Benstud Make Mine Cullen, with Our Princess Tiffany to start from gate 13 for new trainer Dean Braun, who will be hoping to build on her $835,162 in career winnings.
In addition to in-form Victorian mare Goodtime Heaven and Rock N Roll Chapel, Our Princess Tiffany shares the back row with Craig Cross’s mare No Win No Feed, who was the horse who toppled the $1.04 favourite in that Breeders Crown three-year-old final.
The front line is dominated by two stables, with Six Elements and Pick Up Line representing David Miles and Emma Stewart having four starters in Techys Angel, Amelia Rose, Kualoa and Maajida.
The three-leg series takes in Saturday night's $30,000 Group 3 sprint, the October 23 Angelique Club Pace and the October 31 $100,000 Benstud Queen Of The Pacific.
For the first time, the three legs that form the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown will carry cash bonuses.
If a horse manages to win all legs of the Crown, as The Orange Agent did in 2017, winning connections will receive a $20,000 bonus. The horse who accumulates the most points throughout the series will receive a $10,000 bonus.
The Group 3 feature will stream on Trots Vision at 9.03pm and is race seven on an 11-race card that also includes three Group 1 races.
The first of those is the TAB Victoria Trotters Oaks at 8.32pm, when Pink Galahs will likely have plenty admirers after the three-year-old filly shocked the trotting world in winning Saturday night’s Aldebaran Park Bill Collins Trotters Sprint.
She will start from gate five for Matt Craven, who also has Queen Of Crime, on the back of her dominant win at yesterday’s Humbletonian Day, and Aldebaran Tess starting off the front row of the $60,000 feature.
The night also encompasses the Aldebaran Park Vicbred Home Grown Classic two-year-old trotting finals, with the boys to run at 10.02pm and the girls to follow at 10.32pm.
Paddy Lee enters with two heat winners, including Keayang Xena, who drew gate one for the colts and geldings’ final, and filly Keayang Xena, who will start from gate six.
Emma Stewart’s Utopia was the other heat winner in the colts and geldings' class, while Chris Lang’s filly Evas Image and Brent Lilley’s filly Kyvalleyhoneybunny also booked their finals places with heat wins.
Elsewhere on Saturday night, Boxofchocolates will be chasing a seventh win from as many starts, Malcolms Rhythm and Out To Play will be among the notables to step out in the Woodlands Stud Pace, and talented trotters Majestuoso and Imsettogo will be among the Niota Bloodstock Trot field.
HRV – Michael Howard