Trots Review: Dream mare officially the Group 1 Queen

‘Amazing’ is a crown that fits very comfortably on tonight’s Benstud Queen Of The Pacific winner, who captured an extraordinary 10^th Group 1 win with a convincing victory at Tabcorp Park Melton.

Amazing Dream’s stunning season scripted another chapter tonight for trainer Nathan Purdon and reinsman Anthony Butt, winning the $100,000 finale to a tremendous Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown.

The success follows Group 1 wins in Queensland in July in the Rising Sun and Blacks A Fake, which preceded a Victorian campaign that saw her win the Kilmore Cup, place fourth in the Victoria Cup, second in the Geelong Cup and then break through tonight against her own sex.

“She’s an amazing mare,” Butt told TrotsVision. “She went through the Queensland carnival and that was tough going up there, there were some great horses she beat. She probably had a busy campaign before that as well, I think she raced in the Jewels.

“To me she’s going as good as ever. A lot of people were a bit disappointed last week in her (at Geelong), but I wasn’t, took a great horse (General Dodge) to beat her and she beat the rest. There were some pretty handy horses behind her.

“She’s been racing really great against the big boys and hasn’t been too far away. Just a slight drop back in class just makes a little bit of difference, but she was outstanding tonight.”

The Pantheist initially held the front from gate one but was happy to cede the lead to Amazing Dream (gate four) and from there the favourite was able to dictate.

Lead rival Maajida sidled to her outside with a lap and a half to run and the pace over the 2760-metre classic remained honest, with the 86.8-second lead time preceding final quarters that were all under 30 seconds.

Despite the hearty distance, Amazing Dream had enough left in the tank to produce a 26.5-second final quarter that would keep all challengers at bay, including fast finishing stablemate Spellbound, who launched late to claim second.

The Pantheist finished third, clinching the Elizabeth Clarke Mares Triple Crown for David Miles’ mare, who also won last week’s Angelique Club Pace and finished second in the preceding Make Mine Cullen.

That saw her finish with 16 points for the three-race series, claiming the Crown ahead of Spellbound (13 points), while Maajida and Amazing Dream tied for third with eight points.

Butt told TrotsVision he was keen to ensure tonight’s run was a test for speed and strength.

“I knew (Amazing Dream) would stay better than most, I just wanted to get it right – not go too fast, not go too slow – she was always comfortable in front, always relaxed but travelling nicely,” he said.

“Around the (final) bend there was a bit of noise behind her, you could hear a few of the drivers yelling and roaring and she picked the bit up enormously and I was very confident then.”