Tonight is trots’ unofficial juvenile racing grand final, where reputations are made and glories created that can be relived throughout careers.
But when the barrier arms fold back, it’s all business for the reinsmen and women.
Trainer-driver David Miles, from Monegeeta, north of Melbourne, has done it across more than 5600 drives, including Breeders Crown wins with Manifold Bay (2000) and Whitten (2002)
These occasions are special, but it’s also just business.
“The week leading up you make sure you dot all the i’s and cross the t’s, but once you get to race night and in the cart you are away,” Miles said.
“The nervous energy that builds up goes away (and) it’s up to you and the horse. I thrive on it.”
Miles has Emerald Stride in tonight’s Aldebaran Park two-year-old fillies trotting final, the $95,000 race that is one of four trotting Group 1s.
While many horses have passed through his hands and he has enjoyed success in previous partnerships, much appears on the line for Miles with Emerald Stride, who on August 5 delivered his first Group 1 win as a trainer in the Seelite Windows and Doors Redwood Classic.
“That Redwood race, you only get a horse that can compete in it every five or 10 years, and then to have one good enough to win it is another thing,” he said. “Winning that was a real honour.”
It was also an opportunity to reward a key backer in owner Emilio Rosati, who paid a handsome sum to buy Emilios Stride, the American winner of seven races who is the only sibling of Well Said — a winner of $2.7 million and now sire of the likes of gun Victorian three-year-old pacer Speak No Evil.
Emilios Stride was serviced by dominant stallion Bettors Delight, pacing bloodlines that produced a horse who tonight may prove the best trotter of her class.
“She is probably one of the best bred horses in Australia,” Miles said. “It is my first season having
horses with Emilio — last season he farmed horses to six or seven trainers Australia wide and I was lucky enough to get a handful.
“He tips more into harness racing than anyone in the country, his horses race worldwide, and he deserves everything he gets.
“When you get quality bred horses like we’ve got, if the trainer’s not got them up and running it’s probably the trainer’s fault.
“The one thing with my filly is she seems to be bomb proof — she’s also a Bettor’s Delight, and they just win when they have to.”
