Supreme Dominator finally starting to live up to name

As far as Joe Pace is concerned, it’s a case of better late than never for his talented pacer Supreme Dominator.

After showing an abundance of ability as a young horse, Pace’s top clients Charlie Sant and Sam Castro purchased the son of Bettors Delight in early 2019, but getting the horse to fulfil the potential he showed when running placings behind future Inter Dominion Grand Final winner Ultimate Sniper in two of New Zealand’s big derby races has proven to be a time-consuming task.

However, the Harkness-based trainer’s commitment is finally starting to reap rewards. Supreme Dominator is ready to tackle just his second Group 1 contest since arriving on our shores more than two years ago.

The gelding’s successful 2021 season featured an impressive nine wins, which have helped earn a place in tonight’s time-honoured Ballarat Pacing Cup.

“He came back to Melbourne (from New Zealand) and he got a bit crook, didn’t settle in well and took a while to find his feet,” Pace said.

“He virtually got home sick, if anything. That’s what I can just put it down to. And along the way he did catch a couple of niggling viruses that put him back a bit.

“But now, touch wood, he’s paying the owners a reward.”

Pace said after a failed interstate mission when he stayed with top NSW horseman Luke McCarthy, a long spell through the back half of 2020 seemed to have worked wonders in overcoming whatever was holding the horse back from showing his best.

“I just chucked him out at a friend of mine’s property and he spent five months just out in the wilderness, in a forest virtually,” the 50-year-old said.

From there, a slow and steady preparation began and the real Supreme Dominator finally re-emerged.

His versatility and ability to win from different positions was a feature of the gelding’s 2021 season, which was highlighted by a narrow victory in the Group 2 Cranbourne Pacing Cup during December.

“Luckily the owners just left it up to me and I thought the best thing was just to put him back to nature. Whatever he had wrong, hopefully a long spell would fix him,” Pace said.

“And luckily enough it did.”

Young driver James Herbertson has been at the controls as Supreme Dominator has risen through the ranks, and while Pace is yet to taste elite-level success in more than three decades as a trainer, the 21-year-old reinsman certainly knows what it takes to win at the highest level.

Herbertson closed out 2021 with his second Group 1 victory in the final race of the season and would love nothing more than a long-odds success in one of the sport’s big features this evening.

“He’s one of these up-and-coming top young drivers,” Pace said.

“I can just see in years to come where he will be Gavin Lang and Chris Alford all over again.”