Not long ago it seemed mission impossible but troublesome trotter Perfect Polly has delivered trainer-driver Chris Lang a breakthrough Group 1 triumph.
Not since Kyvalley Blur claimed the Bill Collins Trotters Mile in 2013 has Lang trained a Group 1 winner, while you have to file back to Sundons Gift’s Australian Trotting Grand Prix victory in 2010 for the champion horseman’s last driving Group 1.
That all changed tonight with Perfect Polly’s victory in the Aldebaran Park Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic final for three-year-old trotting fillies, which meant the world to Lang, whose rebuilt his stable since returning from an almost four-year absence late in 2018.
“These are the races we aspire to win every year,” Lang told Trots Vision. “They’re basically what gets me out of bed in the morning, is trying to win Group 1s.
“Last season I think we ran three or four placings in Group 1s. We were knocking on the door but couldn’t quite get there. To line up in our first one this year and get that one across the line gives us confidence going forward.”
And, Lang said, in Perfect Polly the breakthrough’s come from perhaps one of the least likely of places.
At least that was the case just a month or so ago when the three-year-old Muscle Hill filly, who’s dam Dream Interest hails from Maori Miss’s rich lines, was initially a handful.
“Six weeks ago she could virtually hardly trot. We’ve had a lot of trouble getting her shoeing right et cetera,” Lang said.
“It was almost an afterthought when I put her in the heat, but considering the way she went there we had to come tonight. I can’t believe it’s the same horse I was training six weeks ago.”
Perfect Polly showed great gate speed to find the front in her heat before handing up and then mowing down Ima Destroyer to win on debut.
The performance saw her start a $1.30 favourite for tonight’s $50,000 final when she repeated the dose, leading from gate three and this time holding the front all the way to the finishing post.
Appearfromnowhere, for trainer David Abrahams and reinsman Chris Svanosio, pressed late on the inside and Ima Destroyer, for trainer Brent Thomson and reinsman Josh Aiken, threatened on her outside, but Perfect Polly held on to win by a short-half head.
“She’s obviously a well bred filly and got a fairly bright future I’d say,” Lang said.
“They’re always a work of art a lot of young trotters. I don’t even think she’s had that many trials, so two starts for two wins and now for a Group 1 under her belt, it’s quite amazing.”
The result will also be quite the thrill for owner-breeder Richard Matthews, confirming the high opinion and bold naming choice he bestowed upon the filly.
“Richard told me that he’s been waiting 25 years to call a horse Perfect Polly, because obviously his wife Pauline is ‘Polly’,” Lang said. “He said, ‘matey, this is the one’. I didn’t believe him, but tonight he’s spot on.”
