By Staff Reporter
High-class mare Dance Craze was able to perform the near impossible and run past Tornado Valley to claim the Hygain Australian Trotting Grand Prix on a memorable Group 1 night for trainer Anton Golino and driver Glen Craven.
The daughter of Muscle Hill’s triumph landed the second leg of an elite level double for Golino and Craven, which had earlier combined with Im Ready Jet in the IRT Australia Need For Speed Princess Final.
Despite a couple of moves from rival runners, Dance Craze was able to keep her place in the one-one for much of the 2240m journey before unleashing a brilliant sprint in the home straight to charge past Tornado Valley, which had worked to the lead down the back straight the first time.
The result, achieved in a mile rate of 1:58.2, ended the Andy Gath-trained star’s tilt at a third-straight Group 1 and added a third to the resume of Dance Craze.
“She’s definitely special and credit to Anton to get her up for tonight,” Craven said.
“Tonight she was able to get the good run. We were able to make a mid-race move when the speed slackened off and get the one-one again and that’s just the way she races best.”
Golino will now ponder a trip overseas with the six-year-old, which has won 21 of 37 career starts.
“I think she’s the right horse. We took her to New Zealand (in 2018) and she handled the trip really well. She was an unlucky third over there in the Jewels, but she honestly is a very, very easy horse. She takes care of herself and there’s no trick to her so that’s a big attribute, especially for a mare I guess. She’s fairly sensible,” Golino said.
“Obviously it’s a dream. That’s a dream we all sort of want to strive for. If everything goes right, yeah it could be a possibility.”
Im Ready Jet blitzed her rivals in the IRT Australia Need For Speed Princess Final (1720m) by close to 25m.
The horse clocked a sizzling mile rate of 1:55.6 in beating Simone De Beauvoir and stablemate Imamaorijet.
It was career win number six for Im Ready Jet and the second at the top level.
Saturday night’s all-trotting card at Tabcorp Park Melton featured two other Group 1 contests and they were both won by champion reinsman Chris Alford.
Alford took the drive of Anthony Butt-trained Elite Stride, which made no mistake as a warm $1.70 favourite in the Alan Mance Holden Need For Speed Prince Final (1720m).
The Muscle Hill colt won by close to 25m in 1:55.8, beating runner-up Andover Sun and third-placed Royalebomba.
“That was pretty exciting. He just travelled well all the way and when he got into the back he wanted to get going so we said ‘let’s go’. He did it really well and had plenty left,” Alford said.
Half an hour later Alford was back in the winner’s circle when I Am Pegasus got the job done as $1.40 favourite in the Lyn McPherson Memorial Breed For Speed Gold Series Final (1720m).
The Joe Vassallo-trained I Am Pegasus copped some pressure in the lead and had to fight hard to hold out Chris Svanosio’s Norquay, which dived through along the sprint lane to be denied by a short half head.
Once again, the mile rate was a hot 1:55.8.
“She’s generally known for her speed, but she got hammered pretty hard the first half and had to be brave tonight,” Alford said.
“I thought the other one had her, but she dug deep.”
-Tim O’Connor
