Great success came with a tinge of sadness for the Ballarat camp around filly Relentless Me after her win in a heat of the Pryde’s Easifeed Victoria Oaks at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday.
Her trainer Sebastian Steenhuis had Eddie O’Brien front of mind after the result, the filly’s breeder and former owner who died as a result of a car accident two years ago and never saw her race.
“All Eddie ever wanted was to have a good horse,” Steenhuis said. “He loved Collingwood and he loved the horses.”
Relentless Me pinged straight to the front, steadied the tempo in the middle stages and then reeled off closing sectionals of 27.2 and 26.8 to leave her rivals struggling in her wake.
She has drawn the coveted pole in the Group 1 $150,000 Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Oaks Final on Saturday night.
Relentless Me began racing as a two-year-old, winning twice and qualifying for the Vicbred Super Series and Breeders Crown finals, while earlier this season she posted her most important success to date in the Group 3 $40,000 Tasmanian Oaks at Hobart.
The daughter of cups king Restrepo has won seven races and been 12 times placed from 29 starts for $99,660 in stakes.
“She keeps getting better and better,” Steenhuis said. “She’s got good gate speed and once she finds the front she seldom gets run down. She’s strong and she’s fast.”
Steenhuis, a member of a prominent Ballarat harness family, said Relentless Me’s prime targets for the remainder of the season were the Breeders Crown and Vicbred Super Series.
He is hoping the filly can become his second Group 1 winner following the success of the pacing bred trotter Jerichos Trumpet in the Vicbred Platinum Home Grown 3YO Classic in 2017.
Relentless Me is owned by Eddie O’Brien’s son, Tim, and is raced on lease by Steenhuis’s wife Donna, his son Zac’s partner Brittany O’Brien and his grandson Wyatt.
