The Lee stable completed back-to-back wins in the Australasian Trotting Championship after Imperial Monarch chalked up the biggest win of his career in the Group 3 feature at Melton on Saturday night.
Driver Jason Lee showed plenty of initiative in the early stages of the race as he steered Imperial Monarch forward from his outside front row draw in the standing start event.
Imperial Monarch was able to wrest the early lead away from the $2.50 favourite Lovemeto, whose driver Chris Svanosio was content to await his chance along the sprint lane in the home straight.
Lee was subsequently allowed to dictate the terms of the race to suit himself and Imperial Monarch ($8.50) reeled off a 27.1 last 400 metres to hold off Lovemeto by a metre and a half.
Lee piloted the Marg and Paddy Lee-prepared Keayang Chucky to victory in the race last year.
Lee said the former Kiwi trotter was in career-best form.
“He’s probably been at the crossroads a couple of times, but it’s pretty tough in this grade. You’ve only got to be five per cent off or land here pretty quick or run a little below your best,” Lee said.
“But he’s right in the zone at the moment. There’s probably four or five of them here that are locking horns every week and whoever gets the best run gets the job done,” he said.
