What a golden era of mares we are enjoying.

Amore Vita’s record-equalling Vicbred final at Melton last Saturday night further underlines what a remarkable crop this is.

Champion driver Chris Alford said Amore Vita didn’t feel as sharp as she can, but the daughter of Art Major still did it easily.

She joined former stablemate Maajida to become just the second female pacer to clean sweep the Vicbred finals with wins at two, three and four.

But what now?

And the same question still lingers with stablemate Encipher after she upstaged the boys in the $2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle on September 2.

We know another of their stablemates and the best of the lot on her CV, Ladies In Red, will stick to racing the mares, at least in the foreseeable future.

That’s totally understandable given she’s been on the sidelines for so long with injury and is about to embark on a comeback.

Let’s not forget she has already beaten the boys at her only try. That was in last year’s Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park.

But will we see Amore Vita and/or Encipher take on the boys in the $300,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton on October 14?

Off the back of Encipher’s Menangle heroics, she would bring so much extra to Victoria’s second biggest open-class feature.

Although the history of the Victoria and Hunter Cups criss-cross a little, officially the record books show a mare has never won the Victoria Cup since it started in 1974.

If you bundle in the Hunter Cup, you have to go right back to the mighty Kiwi stayer Blossom Lady as the last mare to win it. She went back-to-back in 1994 and ’95 with Anthony Butt aboard.

The fact both Amore Vita and Encipher (and Ladies In Red for that matter) are trained by Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin is a definite consideration.

Sure, there are some nice mares’ races coming up, but so many of Stewart and Tonkin’s star mares will be racing against each other. You can also throw the likes of Tough Tilly, Treachery and Soho Historia into the mix.

None of those mares’ races have anything like the purse of the Victoria Cup.

And a top-flight mare can still tackle the Victoria Cup and the state’s biggest mares’ race, the $150,000 Queen Of The Pacific on November 4.

It wouldn’t make sense for both Amore Vita and Encipher to take on the Victoria Cup, but it would be disappointing if one of them didn’t.

So, which is more likely to?

Encipher will be the one.

Let’s not forget she didn’t just beat “some” boys in the TAB Eureka, she beat Leap To Fame, who is the most exciting pacer in Australasia and a raging hot pre post favourite for the Victoria Cup.

Owner-breeder Tyson Linke said he walked through the options with Stewart last week.

“The way I see it, anything now after winning the TAB Eureka is a bonus, so we’re happy to be part of the big races and hope she draws well and gets some luck,” he said.

“We’ll have a crack at the Victoria Cup and we can still go on to the Queen of the Pacific, too.”

It’s exciting and not a huge shock given Stewart said publicly a week ago: “I think she deserves her chance (against the boys again).”

Amore Vita has already taken on the boys, but it was basically a “put the pen through” run, according to Alford.

That was when she ran eighth in the Group 1 Blacks A Fake at Albion Park on July 22.

“She drew terribly and wasn’t herself. She must have been flat from the big win the week before,” he said.

“I wouldn’t use that as any guide.

“I think she’s got the strength and speed to measure up to the boys. You’d obviously drive her differently. And she’s shown a few times how good she can be when she’s not driven like the best horse in the race.”

Alford is well qualified to comment having driven superstar mares Tailamade Lombo and Lombo La Fe Fe to beat the boys in serious races.

But just like Linke, Amore Vita’s owner-breeder Steve Dolan was given the option by Stewart and Tonkin.

And he’s happy to stay against the girls for now.