A brilliant front-running drive from Jason Lee aboard Somewhere Secret helped bring about the undoing of red-hot favourite Wolf Stride and gave trainer Emma Stewart another victory in the Sokyola Sprint (1710m) on her home track of Ballarat.
It was a masterclass effort with the reins from Lee, who flew the gate from barrier three to find the lead and was then able to escape with a 31.5s second quarter, which allowed his horse to explode with a 54.7s last half.
Wolf Stride, who was backed into $1.20 by punters, settled at the rear of the field and tried to haul in the leader during the sprint home but was only able to manage a distant third as Somebeachshadow boxed on well for second.
“Probably in the end that was the difference,” Lee said of his ability to find the front.
“It was always going to be hard for the horse of (Anthony Butt’s), Wolf Stride, who had a little freshen-up after his good win in the Breeders Crown Free For All and our bloke had been going around the last couple of weeks and been running some really good races.
“Once we were able to get across Jodi (Quinlan on Somebeachshadow) early and get a bit of air back into the lungs, we were going to be able to run a really good last half.”
And that’s exactly how it panned out as Somewhere Secret reeled off last quarters of 27.6s and 27.1s to put the race to bed in a mile rate of 1:53.9.
“Getting a breather like that, he’s always going to be hard to catch,” Lee said.
“Once we got that second quarter and he was able to just let rip once we turned into the back, he was going to take a fair bit of catching.”
Somewhere Secret made it three-straight wins for Stewart in the feature, which was first run in 2007 to honour Lance Justice’s champion pacer. Phoenix Prince claimed the race last year and Shadow Sax prevailed in 2018.
Justice had Rishi in Saturday night’s event, but he was unable to beat a runner home and came in last of the five.
Somewhere Secret has now won 14 of 34 career starts for more than $120,000 in prizemoney.
Lee landed the first leg of a double with another front-running success aboard the talented Change The Print for his mother, trainer Marg, in the Ballarat Mazda Pace (1710m), while dual victories also went the way of fellow drivers James Herbertson and Kate Gath.
Herbertson scored with Steel Screens – trained by father Ashleigh – in the Decoglaze Vicbred Pace (2200m) and then in the last race of the night with The Crimson Prince, who got there in the shadows of the post to win the Flying Horse Entertainment Venue Pace (2200m) for trainer Amanda Turnbull.
Gath and her husband, Andy, teamed to take out the TAB Long May We Play Trot (2200m) with former New Zealander and McLovin’s half-brother Havehorsewilltravel and then the Terrace Restaurant Now Open Trot (2200m) with the flying Monaro Maro.
