Highly promising juvenile trotter Afternoon Breeze underlined her untapped potential when she took out the Dynamic Print Group Bob Conroy 2YO Trotting Classic.
A winner on debut at Kilmore, Afternoon Breeze found the early lead, however Nathan Jack was content to surrender the front running to Unclad with 1600 metres to travel.
Jays All That was being hailed the winner on straightening as Afternoon Breeze appeared to lay in as Jack attempted to pull the filly to the outside.
Instead, Jack opted to drive Afternoon Breeze ($2.70 fav) through a gap in the home straight, and the daughter of Classic Connection quickly burst through the opening to get up and score by a metre in a mile rate of 2:01.8.
Jack could barely contain his excitement at the winner’s prospects after the race.
“She is very untapped and the steering is not quite there just yet, but to pick them up late in 28.8 and still not quite get it right just goes to show how good she is going to be down the track,” Jack said.
Jack recalled he was intent on securing Afternoon Breeze at last year’s Nutrien Yearling Sales.
“Her mother is a sister to Callmethebreeze, and when I came out and won the Great Southern Star on him the night before the Sales, if my arm needed twisting then that twisted it,” he said.
“She’s got a pretty busy end to the season with the Nutrien, Breeders Crown and Vicbred.”
The Jess Tubbs-trained Tracy The Jet made amends for her last-start unlucky defeat in the Group 1 NSW Trotters Oaks when she prevailed in the $30,000 VHRC The Holmfield.
James Herbertson settled Tracy The Jet ($3.70) midfield in the running line before embarking on a long sustained sprint from the 600-metre mark to score running away by two and a half metres from the $1.40 favorite Commodus in a mile rate of 1:56.9.
“She really didn’t have any favors. The leaders got it pretty easy up front with a 30.7 first quarter and she really didn’t have any right to win that,” Herbertson said.
Bred by Yabby Dam Farms, Tracy The Jet’s older half-brother Derek The Jet took out last year’s edition of the VHRC The Holmfield.
In a further emphasis on Yabby Dam Farms’ impact on the breeding industry in Australia, the emerging Afternoon Breeze is also a product of the prolific nursery.
