Tough Tilly upstaged her champion stablemate Ladies In Red for the second time at Group 1 level on a magical night at Tabcorp Park Menangle for the Emma Stewart stable.
Driven by regular reinswoman Kate Gath, the daughter of Captaintreacherous sat parked outside Joanna throughout the APG Gold Bullion Series 4YO Mares Final (1609m) and poked her head in front where it mattered to score a memorable success.
Ladies In Red (Nathan Jack) finished hard from midfield in the running line, but couldn’t reel in Tough Tilly and went down by a neck on the line. Joanna (Jackie Barker) was third to complete a stable trifecta.
Half an hour later, Beyond Delight backed up his brilliant heat win with victory in the APG Gold Bullion Series 4YO Entires and Geldings Final (1609m).
Driven by Greg Sugars, the son of Bettors Delight settled in the one-one and let rip with his customary turn of foot in the straight. He surged to the lead before hanging on to beat the Michael Stanley-trained Drain The Swamp (Chris Geary) by just over 3m.
Completing the Group 1 treble for the Victorians was Queen Elida.
After a brilliant three-year-old season, the Brent Lilley-trained mare put the writing on the wall with a great first-up display at Melton last week and then captured the La Coocaracha (1609m) at her second start for the preparation.
Driven by Chris Alford, Queen Elida was taken back from her barrier nine draw and then commenced a run through the middle stages of the mile sprint. Aldebaran Crescent (David and Josh Aiken) hit the lead at the 200m mark but galloped soon after, leaving Lilley’s star to race clear and score a 3.5m triumph.
Queen Elida has now won 12 of 22 starts, with her prizemoney now up near $200,000.
The other Group 1 on Saturday night’s Menangle card was won by Tough Love (Rickie Alchin), who just held off Amandine (Anton Golino/Josh Duggan) in the NSW Trotters Oaks.
