A decision by Andy Gath to bypass the Group 1 Haras Des Trotteurs Great Square paid dividends when a stable favourite took out the Aldebaran Park Trot at Melton on Saturday night.
The lone horse off the second row, Imperial Command ($5.50) settled midfield in the running line before Kate Gath peeled out three wide with 400 metres to travel and the four-year-old sustained his run to get the verdict by a short half-head from Kyvalley Maven in a mile rate of 1:59.8.
Imperial Command, who is affectionately known as “Cash”, was in line for a float trip to Albion Park late last week to contest the $150,000 Great Square when it appeared superstar mare Keayang Zahara wasn’t making the journey.
Those plans were aborted by Gath when the connections of Keayang Zahara had second thoughts and couldn’t resist the lucrative spoils on offer in Brisbane with the best trotter in Australasia.
Kate Gath admitted she wasn’t sure which way the photo would go as she crossed the line.
“I thought that I’d got beaten but this horse definitely knows where the winning post is,” Gath said.
“He was pretty good tonight as the first quarter was slow and I thought that might make it a bit tricky from where we were, but I was following two decent horses and the last quarter wasn’t too quick, which helped us get into the race. He did a great job.”
The horse’s owners, which include several media identities, have recently dared to dream about a potential tilt at the Group 1 Great Southern Star, which the Gath stable won with Watts Up Partytime early this year.
“Who knows, he’s got good gate speed and honestly that’s what has got him so far. I wasn’t sure whether he could really run time, but he is getting better all the time – it was a solid mile rate tonight and he ran it off the pegs four wide around the last corner.
“He just keeps getting the job done, so fingers crossed he can keep doing it.”
Earlier in the night, Jamie Kirk-trained pacer Rakajed completed back-to-back wins at Melton when he outstayed his rivals in the Vale Joe Thompson Pace.
The race was named in honour of Joe Thompson, a much-loved member of the harness racing family who passed away during the week following a lengthy battle with cancer.
Rakajed was set alight early in the race by Taylor Youl to sit outside the leader and $2.50 favorite Roadmaster, with the pair settling down to fight out the finish approaching the home turn.
Roadmaster straightened with a two metre advantage over Rakajed, however the latter refused to yield and dug deep in the home stretch to fight back and grab victory by a head in a mile rate of 1:52.1.
Youl said she knew the race was far from over on the home turn.
“He always loses that bit of ground around the bend, but he is so tough that I knew he would come again,” Youl said.
“There was a bit of speed in the race, and I knew from barrier seven that we would have to do a bit of work, but I had confidence in the horse because I know how tough he is.”
