Tim O'Connor
Emma Stewart has qualified a staggering nine juveniles for next Saturday night’s Ride High Breeders Crown 2YO Fillies Final, but amazingly the pre-semi final series favourite won’t be there.
The classy Irish Black Label was sent out a short-priced elect in the second of the qualifiers at Tabcorp Park Melton, but dropped out sharply approaching the home turn as stablemate Sounds Perfect swept down the outside to break her maiden in style.
The Somebeachsomewhere filly settled towards the back of the field and unleashed a stunning finale to round up her rivals with ease.
Back-to-back 28.8sec final quarters contributed to a 1:55.7 mile rate as Sounds Perfect cleared out to win by more than 5m on the line from fellow Stewart-trained pair Playing Up and Fiamma.
“She certainly put the writing on the wall at her first start, and tonight was a little bit more experienced and went super,” driver Kerryn Manning said.
“Clayton (Tonkin, Stewart’s training partner) said he likes her as much as any of them (other two-year-old fillies)…
“He was quite positive both times that she’d run a really good race and he really likes her.”
Manning was impressed with the versatility shown by the horse in her two career runs to date, with the debut fourth placing coming after sitting parked and before a swooping display in the semi-final.
“Tonight was good. The speed was on and she was able to round them up late and showed good speed, whereas at Maryborough she was quite tough,” the champion reinswoman said.
“She seems to have all the attributes. Just inexperience might cost her in the final, but she’s probably as good as most of them.”
Sounds Perfect’s triumph came after stablemate Petillante produced a brilliant front-running display to win the opening semi-final bout.
New South Wales-based driver Cameron Hart was at the controls and speared to the lead from his barrier five draw before controlling the race from the top. The Somebeachsomewhere filly then sprinted home in 27.7sec and 27.9sec quarters to beat Nathan Purdon-trained Amore Vita by just over 3m.
“She was really strong,” Hart said.
“She came out of the gate well and Clayton (Tonkin) said she’s a strong filly. And she showed that in the heat.
“She was just able to roll some really good fractions and made it hard for them to come from behind and beat her.”
Amore Vita, Just Hope (Russell Jack) and Relentless Me (Brittany O’Brien) were the only fillies outside of Stewart’s barn to qualify for next Saturday night’s $300,000 Group 1 final.
