Michael Stanley’s two-year-old fillies again showed their Group 1 potential, with Soho Angel and Petacular building on outstanding debut seasons with harness racing victories in Saturday night’s Empire Vicbred Super Series heats at Bendigo.
Having both been prominent in the $322,000 Australian Pacing Gold final, the pair look certain to be in this celebrated Victorian series all the way to the July 2 Group 1 finals, with Soho Angel registering a 3m win in heat two and Petacular running down previously unbeaten Our Celebrity to win heat three by a neck.
That trio, in addition to the key combatants in the thrilling first heat, when Perfect Sense won a ripping battle with Keayang Secret to kick-start the series in style, emerged as leading lights in the field, and will be among those to front for semi-finals at Tabcorp Park Melton on June 24.
“She’s a gutsy little trier and we love her,” Stanley said of Soho Angel after she claimed heat two, using the sprint lane to outpace leader Mammals Magic and win in a 1:59.9 mile rate. “She’s a beautiful little Bettor's Delight, there’s no fuss about her.”
And Soho Angel, who is out of Soho Champagne and owned by Robert Watson, will only improve, Stanley said.
“The barrier helped and she probably was a little bit underdone, because she did have a good freshen up after that APG series,” he said. “I think she is a very good chance (to win the series).
“She’s probably not fully wound up, she hasn’t done a lot of work since the APGs, so we have a good break until the semi-finals to get a bit more work into her. I’m sure that she will race very well through the rest of the series.”
And similar goes for Petacular, who is by Somebeachsomewhere out of Ideal Priority. She had to do plenty of work to claim her heat win, having improved three-wide mid-race from barrier seven to take the death seat and then rounded highly-rated Our Celebrity at the bend to win a final straight showdown by a head.
“This filly’s a different filly to (Soho Angel),” Stanley said. “She does have a fair bit of depth to her. She hasn’t had a great preparation before tonight after the APG and she will hopefully only improve on what she did tonight.
“You’ve got to have bit of versatility and depth in your horses and I’m sure that she does have that.”
Dean Braun-trained Carlas Pixel, driven by Greg Sugars, boxed on well down the sprint lane to place a close third in the heat.
One of the night’s key showdowns came in the first heat, when Perfect Sense and Keayang Secret separated themselves from the field to run first and second.
Perfect Sense, Emma Stewart’s Art Major filly who has placed in all five starts including a second in the $322,000 Australian Pacing Gold final, led from the pole mark and as expect Jason Lee placed Keayang Secret on to her tail from gate eight.
There they remained until the final straight, where Keayang Secret (Always A Virgin/Feel The Magic), trained by Marg Lee from Terang, challenged the front marker but had to ultimately settle for second, with their 27.4 last quarter creating a 1:59.3 mile rate and a 23m gap to third-placed Atusa.
The last of the heat winners brought the biggest surprise for punters when $17.20 shot Gilty Hanover won for Bolinda trainer Kari Males and driver Greg Sugars.
The filly, by Rocknroll Hanover out of Gilt Bromac, burst through down the sprint lane to win in 2:01.4 mile rate.
“She has only had a couple of starts and is still learning about the racing caper, but she showed a bit of promise at the trials and in those starts,” Sugars said. “It wasn’t completely out of the equation to see her in the finish, but she put in a really good performance tonight.
“This is the first time I have driven her. She’s not a 100 per cent tractable racehorse yet, so whatever she does now is probably a bonus. The thing about babies and their racing, they can improve so much in a short period of time, so the more times she goes around and sits in the field and gets runs like that where she hits the line, it’s only going to do her confidence the world of good and she will be a better racehorse because of it.”
Michael Howard