An all-female trained SENTrack Inter Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final remains a possibility as horses vie for a place in the $500,000 Group 1 during the last round of heats at Geelong’s Beckley Park.
As it stands, the top nine pacers on the leaderboard after two nights of qualifiers are trained by women, with Honolua Bay, Act Now, Mach Dan, Narutac Prince and Beyond Delight all hailing from the Emma Stewart stable, Expensive Ego and Spirit Of St Louis from the Belinda McCarthy camp, Bundoran prepared by Amanda Turnbull and Better Eclipse by Jess Tubbs.
And right on the borderline for a spot in the final field of 12 is the KerryAnn Morris-trained Petes Said So and Julie Douglas-prepared Torrid Saint (both equal 12th), with Stewart’s Like A Wildfire and McCarthy’s Alta Orlando next best in a share of 17th.
The aforementioned women have trained all six of the heat winners across races at Ballarat and Shepparton.
Significant points remain up for grabs at Geelong on Saturday night, with a sliding scale of between 16 and one on offer depending on finishing positions in respective events.
But regardless of what happens, the December 10 Grand Final will be dominated by female trainers.
Stewart can equal an Inter Dominion record by qualifying five horses for the feature, a feat achieved by the training partnership of Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen at Auckland in 2019.
“The Inter Dominion has never really been a focus of ours,” Stewart told Adam Hamilton in a story for Racenet.com.au.
“Our business model has been the two and three-year-olds and you can wear the tread out early that way.
“It’s been a big thing to get right. It’s taken a lot of time and changing up lots of things we do to get a lot of horses right through to Grand Circuit racing and an Inter Dominion this year.
“Having the water walker has been a huge part of that, especially with these older horses.”
The trotting series tells a different story.
Just two women train horses currently inside the top 14 positions, with Tubbs having the unbeaten Just Believe at the top of standings and Stephanie Graham still in the mix for a place in the decider with Queensland raider Majestic Harry.
The 12 finalists for both the pacing and trotting championships will be revealed on TrotsVision and across Harness Racing Victoria’s media channels after third round heats on Saturday night.
Be sure to soak up the Inter Dominion Saturday night and throughout the series. Details at www.id22.com.au.
If you can’t get trackside, tune into the special coverage on www.TrotsVision.com.au.
