Husband and wife Chris and Alison Alford combined for a memorable Group 1 victory on a special Saturday night at Tabcorp Park Melton.
The pair teamed up with talented mare Sleepee for a dominant win in the Lyn McPherson Memorial Breed For Speed Gold Series Final, with the four-year-old leading all the way to claim her second success at the elite level.
The champion reinsman had no trouble finding the front from barrier two and controlled the race before ripping home in a final quarter of 27.8sec to win by 6m over runner-up Aldebaran Crescent.
The mare, who is trained by Alison at the pair's Bolinda property, has now won 11 of 22 career starts for more than $150,000 in prizemoney.
Chris Alford said it was a pretty easy display from the daughter of Dejarmbro, who is now back racing in top form after a significant injury early in her career.
"She missed about 18 months racing with a torn tendon behind her knee and she never really went out of work. She just stayed in with a bit of rehab for all that time," he said.
"To hold her form and to be back racing well is a great effort from everyone at home.
"She had it pretty easy tonight, but she has got a real high cruising speed and she was doing it so easy tonight..."
Sleepee was bred by Colin Murphy, who leased her to Alison Alford and her mum, Vicki Woodhouse.
It took some Chris Alford magic and a little bit of luck to get Queen Elida home in the Group 1 IRT Australia Need For Speed Princess Final earlier in the evening.
Alford got buried three back the pegs on the Brent Lilley-trained filly and ran into dead ends when he tried to extricate into the clear, but eventually found the gaps and finished powerfully to win by 2m on the line.
A galloping Ima Cherished Stride presented a run back along the sprint lane and the daughter of Love You did the rest, rocketing home to win over Lady In The Sky (Amanda Grieve, Brad Williamson) and Banglez (Emma Stewart, Kate Gath).
The Group 1 win came at the former New Zealander's seventh run here in Australia.
"When she had her first run here she just didn't know what she was doing and gradually got better," Alford said.
"Now she gets up on the bit and knows what racing is all about. She had to go from three wide, nearly four wide, turn five carts inwards and go to the sprint lane and flat pump. She handled that well and only nice ones can do that."
Trainers Anthony Butt and Sonya Smith combined to get Wolf Stride into the Miracle Mile with victory at Tabcorp Park Menangle and then just minutes later watched on as stablemate Have No Fear took out the Group 1 Alan Mance Need For Speed Prince Final at Melton.
Zac Phillips, who has been helping run the Butt/Smith stable while they are interstate, produced a clever front-running drive to beat the well-fancied odds-on favourite Kyvalley Hotspur (Brent Lilley, Chris Alford) by 9m, with My Used To Be (Lisa Miles) more than 30m back in third.
"Great effort by this horse and the whole team at home," Phillips said.
"I can't take credit for this one. Brad Chisholm, Amanda Grieve and the whole team out there - I really can't single out anybody. There's five or six of us and a lot of them have put a lot of hours in while Ants and Sonya have been away. So this win is more about them than me, that's for sure."
Have No Fear, a gelding by Father Patrick, is also a former Kiwi who has now won five of his nine starts.