Emma Stewart and Summit Bloodstock made a clean sweep of the $150,000 APG Melbourne Sales Graduate Finals at Melton on Saturday night.

Highly promising colt Loucasso justified his prohibitive $1.04 quote when he outclassed his rivals in the 2YO Colts & Geldings Final.

Mark Pitt momentarily allowed Loucasso to balance at the start before assuming control with 1500 metres to travel, and the result was never in doubt thereafter.

Loucasso cruised to the line 15 metres clear of Sols Me Name, running his last 400 metres in 27.9 in a mile rate of 1:55.8 for the 1720 metres.

Pitt believes the son of Sweet Lou could have gone faster if asked. “He’s got serious speed, this fellow, and when you keep flicking him up, he just keeps finding gears. He was just idling up the straight and I’m sure if I had clicked him up, he would have really run some serious time,” Pitt said.

“I just let him come out on his own and didn’t ask him at all, and that’s always a good sign, but I think if you had to ask him to come off the gate, he would get off it really well,” he said.

Pitt believes the winner’s high speed is his greatest asset. “I think that’s just him as a high-speed horse at this stage of his career. I hope everything stays well with him and we see him in some really nice races later on in the season,” he said.

Now a winner at three of his four starts, Loucasso’s only blemish was when he galloped on the home turn in the Gold Crown Final at Bathurst.

“I think that when Herbie (James Herbertson) went to flick him up, it just gave him a little fright and he jumped out of his gear, so we have to be mindful that when you tap him up, you’ve just got to go easy on him,” he said.

The raw but talented filly Degarmea Teale showed considerable intestinal fortitude to score in the 2YO Fillies Final.

With Jackie Barker in the sulky, Degarmea Teale worked to the front shortly after the start. However, she gave her backers who took the $1.07 on offer some anxious moments in the back straight when she appeared to lose concentration.

The concerns heightened when Ride The Highs drew level with the leader halfway down the straight. However, the daughter of Captain Crunch refused to yield before kicking back to score by half a neck in a mile rate of 1:57.5.

Barker conceded Degarmea Teale still has a lot to learn before she is the finished product.
“She’s a typical little baby with her first time in front. She got a bit lost out there and saw plenty of things that she probably hasn’t seen before,” Barker said.

Barker was happy with the way Degarmea Teale responded when challenged in the straight.
“She was not switched on really well tonight, but credit to her. When that horse got up outside and challenged her, she really switched on well then,” she said.

“She doesn’t respond overly well and I was tapping her the whole way as she was too busy looking around at things. She wanted to have that horse up on her outside keeping her honest.

"She’s proven that she can run the times and the ability is definitely there. You’ve got to remember it’s only her second start tonight and she’s still got plenty to learn.”

Group 1 winning trotter Watts Up Partytime completed a hat trick of wins at Melton when he led all the way in the Hip Pocket Trotters Free For All.

Despite the five-year-old’s rich vein of form, driver Kate Gath was non-committal about a trip north to the Inter Dominion at Albion Park in July for the short course specialist.

“The final is over 3100 metres, so we’ll leave it up to the owner. There’s only two heats now, but the 3100 metres of the Final makes it a bit tricky, so we’ll see what happens,” Gath said.

Meanwhile, Michael Bellman isn’t afraid of aiming for the sky with his promising three-year-old trotter Mecarno, who unleashed a powerful finishing burst to take out the 3YO Trot.

“I think he’s got a chance to be in amongst them to his back teeth in those Derbies later in the year,” Bellman said.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do with him just yet, whether to put him away for a little bit and target races like The Holmfield and the Derby and Vicbreds later in the year,” he said.