Prominent owner Danny Zavitsanos was quietly confident he would continue his recent affiliation with the Victoria Derby as the field scored up in the state’s oldest feature race.
The Zavitsanos-owned Petracca took out the event in 2023, while his pacer Fox Dan prevailed in last year’s race.
Heat winner Brooklyn Dan was well placed to provide Zavitsanos with a three-peat after drawing the pole and was subsequently sent out as a $3.40 second elect behind the $2.70 favourite Palladium.
The race went according to plan when Brooklyn Dan held the front running, while Zavitsanos’ ‘second stringer’ Dynamitedan settled at the rear of the field with James Herbertson in the cart.
The race changed complexion after a brutal 26.3-second back straight quarter, as Herbertson peeled off a three-wide trail around the home turn on Dynamitedan.
The Emma Stewart-trained Dynamitedan defied his $51 starting price when producing a powerful finale to hold off stablemate Mount Barker Boy by a metre and a half in a mile rate of 1:54.6.
Herbertson said the frantic tempo played into his hands.
“It just came down to that mid-race tempo, it was like an old-school Derby with a few moves and when we got going three wide at the 1200 (metres) it was race on,” Herbertson said.
“The quarter off the back really brought us into the race. They were never going to motor home and to his credit he knuckled down and held them off,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zavitsanos was initially stunned as he digested the blowout result.
“I was pretty shocked when I saw it was Dynamitedan who was storming home down the outside,” Zavitsanos said.
“I didn’t have a cent on him. He’s always had the ability but he’s never had much luck and had bad barriers in the big races,” he said.
The win provided Stewart with her fifth Victoria Derby success in the past six years.
