Last season’s champion Australian 3YO trotting filly Tracy The Jet heads a stunning array of young talent across five races at Saturday night’s stellar Bendigo meeting.
The Jess Tubbs-trained Tracy The Jet launches her 2026 campaign in the opening race, while last year’s Victorian 3YO Pacing Filly of the Year, Arrhythmia, also returns from a spell in race two.
Later, lightly raced boom four-year-old Keayang Renegade will be chasing his fifth win from as many starts in race five and exciting Derby prospect Cardigan Dan should make it three wins from as many starts from the pole in race six.
Throw in key trotting Derby contender Howdy Mate in race nine and it’s a night which will shape so many future feature races.
Tracy The Jet was stunning last season with 11 starts netting nine wins and two seconds, including that emotion-charged trip to Christchurch to beat the star Kiwis in the $NZ500,000 The Ascent last November.
Tubbs resisted some big targets early this year to give the four-year-old mare a long spell.
Tracy The Jet steps straight into the deep end and from a back row draw (gate nine) and proven fit and in-form open-class trotters like Lovemetoo (gate 10), Gotfeelingsyouknow (five), Imperial Monarch (six) and Remus Phoenix (seven).
While Keayang Zahara effortlessly made the transition from juvenile to open-class stars, she is an exception and this will be a real challenge for Tracy The Jet.
In contrast, the brilliant Arrhythmia should be too classy for her older rivals in the second event, especially with the advantage of gate one.
The Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin-trained filly won eight of her nine starts and finished second in the other as a two-year-old.
Her major wins included the Vicbred and Breeders Crown finals.
Arrhythmia is one of many young stars Stewart and Tonkin have held back for a later resumption this season and her first major target is next month’s Group 1 NSW Oaks at Menangle.
The Marg and Paddy Lee-trained Keayang Renegade set tongues wagging with a stunning Bendigo win last Wednesday night.
It sparked talk of the $1.5 million TAB Eureka, the world’s richest pacing race, being a target.
“We’ve talked about that for sure,” Paddy Lee said. “We think he could be our next really nice pacer. He’s just so fast, push-button fast.
“We’ve got the option of some good races in Brisbane, but given we’ve been so patient this long, we might wait and focus on the Eureka.”
Cardigan Dan, another of the powerhouse Stewart/Tonkin team, was regarded as one of their best juveniles last year, but mixed his form with three wins and two seconds from nine starts.
But the colt has looked a much more complete package with two wins by an aggregate of 41.1m this campaign and he is drawn to complete the hat-trick from the pole.
To round out the night, Tracy The Jet’s stablemate Howdy Mate, part-owned by NZ-based media star Brittany Graham and top US trainer Nancy Takter, is chasing his sixth win from just 15 starts.
Already a winner of the Nutrien 2YO Classic and runner-up in the Vicbred and Breeders Crown finals, Howdy Mate shapes as a key trotting Derby contender in coming months.
Tracy The Jet – HRNZ/Race Images NZ
