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There is a touch of Makybe Diva about Amore Vita’s quest for a harness racing history at Melton on Saturday night.
Makybe Diva famously won three successive Melbourne Cups, but changed trainers to Lee Freedman after David Hall secured the first in 2003.
Amore Vita won the two-year-old fillies’ Vicbred Super Series final for Nathan Purdon on December 31, 2012, and was transferred to Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin’s stables at Purdon’s suggestion. He returned to his New Zealand homeland 10 weeks before she won the three-year-old fillies’ final last New Year’s Eve.
If Amore Vita wins, she will be the second female pacer to complete a Vicbred clean sweep. Maajida, also trained by Stewart and Tonkin, did it in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Champion driver Chris Alford has won 13 races from 27 drives on Amore Vita, including her two Vicbred finals. He rushed back from driving Aldebaran Zeus in the $1m Yonkers International in the US last weekend to reunite with his “girl”.
Stewart and Tonkin are Amore Vita’s third stable. She had her first three starts at Addington in Christchurch for owner Steve Dolan.
Long before the daughter of Art Major raced, Dolan’s mind wandered to sending her to Australia to compete.
“I thought she was good enough and would be suited to the style of racing over there. Throw in the fact she was paid-up for the Breeders Crown and Vicbred and it became an easy decision,” Dolan said.
“She was beaten at her first two starts, but it turned out she was quite sick, so we put her out and started again and she won her third start by seven lengths at Addington. I asked Nathan Purdon to watch that to see if he wanted to take her … I got a thumbs up text as soon as they crossed the line.”
Amore Vita won 10 of her first 13 starts for Purdon – along with two seconds and a third – but winning the Redcliffe Oaks at that 13th run took its toll.
“That’s the night we found out our Superwoman had a chink,” he laughed. “It was the first time we’d really rushed her off the gate and, although she won, it fired her up and she wasn’t herself for a while.”
She went winless in her next nine starts, her last five with Purdon and the first four with Stewart and Tonkin.
“We were always confident she would get out of the bad habits and back to her best … I loved the day I got a message from Clayton (Tonkin) saying they had sorted her out and she would win the Vicbred (last year),” Dolan said.
Amore Vita easily won her semi-final then sat parked and beat stablemate Encipher in the Group 1 final.
“That was a very satisfying win,” Dolan said. “The Encipher owners probably think their mare is better and we think ours is, so to beat her like that, after doing all the work, was kinda cool.”
Dolan, who will be trackside on Saturday night, said he would leave decisions like whether to tackle the boys in a Victoria Cup and other future majors to Stewart and Tonkin.
“You don’t tell Picasso how to paint,” he said. “They’ll know what’s best for her.”
A total of $1.5million in prizemoney goes up for grabs across the 12 races on Saturday night, with the wall-to-wall TrotsVision coverage headed up by Ryan Phelan, Kirsten Graham, Brittany Graham and caller Dan Mielicki.
TUNE IN at MELTON on Saturday
First Race: 5.30pm Last Race: 11pm
Racecaller: Dan Mielicki with Ryan Phelan, Kirsten Graham and Brittany Graham on TrotsVision.
TrotsVision: WATCH LIVE
SEN Track: LISTEN LIVE
RSN 927: LISTEN LIVE
Winner of the Week
NEVER ENDING, by Sweet Lou out of Endless Journey, at Gloucester Park on September 8.
Breed your next winner with Woodlands Stud, supporter of Trots Centre
