It now looks just a matter of when champion trotting mare Keayang Zahara breaks the Australasian record for the most Group 1 wins.
The Terang mare should post her 26th win from 27 starts and land her 14th victory at Group 1 level in Saturday night’s $60,000 Just Believe Grand Prix (2240m) at Melton.
There will be talk about whether drawing the pole is ideal, but the five-year-old is seemingly getting out of the gate faster with each race and should be able to hold the lead.
Judging by her recent romp in a heat and final of the Great Southern Star, she is simply a league above the rivals she is racing in Victoria.
Another win Saturday will take her past dual Inter Dominion winner Take A Moment on 13 Group 1 wins and into outright second spot, just one behind the great Kiwi Lyell Creek, who won majors in NZ, Australia and North America.
If you include the recent $500,000 Summer of Glory bonus she won, Keayang Zahara has banked $1,664,435.
Her biggest test looms when she meets star Queensland trotter Gus, who marked his arrival in the big league when he won the Group 1 double – Dominion Trot and NZ Trotting free-for-all – during NZ Cup Week last November.
Gus will chase his second win from as many starts this campaign in a free-for-all at Albion Park on Saturday night.
Co-trainer Peter McMullen confirmed he would then target the $100,000 Group 1 Hammerhead Mile at Menangle on March 14.
Whether Keayang Zahara heads to the Hammerhead won’t be decided until after Saturday night.
Gus and Keayang Zahara are yet to clash.
If it’s not in the Hammerhead, they will meet for the first time in the $NZ600,000 Trot Slot at Cambridge in NZ’s North Island on April 10.
Co-trainer Paddy Lee confirmed Keayang Zahara and one of her stablemates – Jilliby Ballerini or Jilliby Dreamlover – would go to Cambridge.
“We’ve got two slots in the race and ‘Zahara’ will take one of them,” he said. “We’ll finalise plans around the Hammerhead, if we go to it all, and Cambridge, after the three of them race Saturday night.”
While Jilliby Dreamlover, who ran third to Keayang Zahara in the Great Southern Star last Saturday week, will clash with her again this week, Jilliby Ballerini will go elsewhere.
Team Lee has opted to drop Jilliby Ballerini, runner-up in the Great Southern Star, back to race against her own sex in the $30,000 Breed For Speed Gold Trot (1720m).
It promises to be more of a contest than the Grand Prix with the emerging I Am Wilma (gate three) and Rockinwithattitude (five) drawn inside Jilliby Ballerini (six).
The other star factor at Melton is eight-time Group 1 winning pacer Catch A Wave, who is drawn to return to form from gate two in the lone pacing race of the night (race one).
The enigmatic start would need to fire to justify a trip to Menangle the following week for one of the Miracle Mile qualifiers.
Catch A Wave’s biggest win came in the 2023 Miracle Mile.
