Not much drives sports headlines in the media, social media engagements or bums on seats like charismatic stars.
Thus the last week has certainly been a blessing in Victorian harness racing.
Tonight in the south-west we saw a virtuoso stamp his authority at Terang with five-year-old Lumineer equalling the Dalvui Raceway track record for 2180 metres with a 1:56.5 mile rate.
Lumineer is a rising trots luminary and he’s destined to be anything.
The Ange McDowall-trained son of Sportswriter has only ever been beaten once in 12 goes (in the Victoria Derby of 2018) and he hasn’t looked like losing in three runs at age five.
His performance tonight came just days after we saw San Carlo’s enormous Jet Roofing Kilmore Cup win, which shocked many, including some within the horse’s camp who probably thought their beloved champ a few runs away from producing that.
Also last Thursday we had Cruz Bromac utterly monster his rivals – there’s no other way to put it – absorbing all the pressure first-up from a spell before careering away with an arrogant victory.
And on the same night at the same track we had a six-year-old named The Storm Inside score win No.12 at start No.13 to further put his name in lights, triggering his owners to declare they ain’t scared of anybody.
In fact, the Miracle Mile was mentioned as a long-term aim, and if they had their way they’d be pushing for the wunderkind to line up in Saturday week’s Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup at HQ.
This kind of passionate approach is gold. It’s good for the narrative, which drives the discussion and the content producers love it. I guarantee that to be true.
Of course we also had Bling It On make a killer return at Menangle last week, Buster Brady and Wrappers Delight will continue to make Kima Frenning guess just which of those jets is going to be more supersonic, Emma Stewart has a big stable of potential fast-class top-liners coming through the ranks – and there are of course plenty more, and I apologise if I’m leaving a horse or three out now because of course I am. I can’t let this article go on much longer so I’m just drawing a line… now!
Strap yourselves in for the next six months because the Trots Country Cups Championship, the road to the New Zealand Cup and Inter Dominion, the TAB Summer of Glory and the big New South Wales features are going to tell us a lot about the up-and-comers and just where they stand in the Grand Circuit scheme of things.
When right Lumineer is a beast and with the amazing patience of @mcdowall_ange there’s no doubt he’s now right #theywontparkhimagainanytimesoon https://t.co/A6HxaSuhZG
— Jason Bonnington (@JasonBonnington) October 1, 2019
