Dan Mielicki must have felt a sense of déjà vu when he asked, “Has the world ended?” as the horses crossed the line in the Smoken Up Sprint at Melton on Saturday night.
Along with the crowd, Mielicki was stunned as Victoria’s most popular pacer, the 10-year-old Bulletproof Boy, first up from a spell, grabbed champion pacer Leap To Fame on the line to record his third win in the race.
Mielicki first uttered those famous words 25 years ago when the Richard Hancock-trained Kyema Kid stormed past Courage Under Fire, who was previously unbeaten in 25 starts, in a heat of the 2000 Inter Dominion series at Moonee Valley.
The race appeared to be going to script as Leap To Fame, the prohibitive $1.06 favourite, straightened with a clear lead from Miki Pins and Bulletproof Boy, who pulled off the pegs to stake an unlikely successful assault on the horse considered by many to be the best in the world. And then it happened.
The official margin to the $71 chance Bulletproof Boy was a half head, who recorded a mile rate of 1:51.1 for the 1720 metres. It was an astounded James Herbertson who brought the Scott Ewen-trained pacer back after the race.
“I think it happened,” Herbertson said.
“I have said before that he is the fastest horse I’ve driven for point-to-point speed and he really showed it tonight,” he said.
Herbertson said he started to contemplate a monumental upset halfway down the home straight.
“It was only about 100 metres out and I thought that we were making pretty good ground on him and Grant (Dixon) wasn’t really getting away from us,” he said.
“I think he’s 10 or 11 years old now and I don’t think you’d find a horse out there that would love racing more than he does. He’s a competitive beast and he’s killed Goliath tonight.”
Ewen was understandably delighted after the race. “He’s a freak. He’s going on 11 but he knows the difference between races and trials and always has,” Ewen said.
“I thought if he could run a hole tonight I’d be rapt but I didn’t expect to beat Leap To Fame,” he said.
Bulletproof Boy, though, may not get the opportunity to repeat the dose in the Victoria Cup according to Ewen, who didn’t nominate for the race.
“He was first up tonight and it would have been another gruelling run. I was contemplating going to South Australia for the Cup because I’m an Adelaide man, but now I don’t know what I’m doing.”
As the horse dubbed the ‘Mighty Mouse’ went from seemingly invincible to ‘gettable,’ so too now has Leap To Fame in next week’s Group 1 Victoria Cup.
