Trots Centre: Goodtime for a Queen to claim her Crown

She may have gone from a front-line contender to somewhat overlooked, but reinsman Mick Stanley’s confident his Benstud Queen Of The Pacific steer is perfectly poised to remind of her quality tonight.

Goodtime Heaven finished third and eighth in the first two legs of the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown, handicapped by tough draws and challenging circumstances, but opportunity finally knocks for the mare in the series’ Group 1 grand finale.

“Goodtime Heaven’s been in really good form through the past couple of months and things didn’t really go that well for her in the lead-up race last week, you can pretty well forget that she went around,” Stanley said.

The Courtney Slater-trained five-year-old mare will launch from gate three tonight, the best placed of those still in contention for the Mares Triple Crown, which for the first time carries a $10,000 bonus.

Series leaders Our Princess Tiffany (10 points), Speak No Evil (eight points) and Rock N Roll Chapel (eight points) have all drawn outside the back row, while No Win No Feed, who like Goodtime Heaven amassed four series points in the series first two legs, will start from gate six.

Victory tonight carries eight points, and so while Goodtime Heaven will need a lot to fall her way to propel to the top of the pops, the primary target is nabbing a second career Group 1 to sit beside her Vicbred Super Series three-year-old triumph.

“She’s bobbed up with a really good draw, hopefully she’s one of the strongest contenders and can put herself right there in the finish,” Stanley said.

 “Really excited to get Goodtime Heaven out to the staying trip of 2700 – it’s going to suit her down to a tee. And it really does sort a few out.

“I’m not too worried about Our Princess Tiffany running past her (in the Benstud Make Mine Cullen), I just don’t think the way it was run suited her very well. Princess Tiffany was the only horse who passed her on that night, so she still was a really good run on that occasion.

“Last week (in the Angelique Club Pace) we just had too much traffic from the 13 barrier draw. She just never really got into the race, we can forget she went around.”

So while Stanley urged us to put a line through her previous run, it’s potentially created value for punters with Goodtime Heaven opening a $23 chance with the TAB.com.au. She’s since been backed in to $13, but even that looks generous, with Good Form analyst Jason Bonnington rating her a $7.50 chance.

“Definitely a bit of value in price,” Stanley said. “It’s probably on those last two runs, but I’m not worried about that at all. I think the longer trip will definitely suit.”

The market is instead dominated by red-price favourite Bettor Enforce, but Stanley said this was a notably different challenge to what the Craig Cross runner had contested of late.

“Sometimes you can get wrapped up in other horses’ form because they’ve got good numerical form,” he said. “Bettor Enforce and No Win No Feed and those horses coming from Menangle, who have only been racing over a mile, it’s going to be a big ask for those horses to step up to 2700, where as our Victorian horses are more adept at switching and changing their distances.

“Princess Tiffany, being a Kiwi mare, she’s going to be really hard to beat, obviously she will see the trip out really well.

“One thing is we’re going to settle really handy, and with a tough mare in a truly run race I’m sure she will give us a good sighting.”

TALKING TROTS ON SENTRACK:

Listen weekdays to Talking Trots on Track from 11am to 1pm on SENTrack, which airs on 1593AM in Melbourne, 1539AM in Sydney, 657AM in Perth, 801AM in Gosford, 96.9FM in Ingham, 99.1FM in Atherton and 1575AM in Wollongong.

Click here to listen live and for links to download the SEN app.