It was a night to remember friends lost, marvel at the equine and human stars and enjoy the atmosphere of an absolutely packed house at Melton.

Vicbred finals night had it all.

The wins of Catch A Wave and Dougs Babe stirred much emotion.

Catch A Wave’s owner Richard Matthews passed away in September. Of the many talented horses he bred and/or raced, Catch A Wave is potentially the best.

Matthews’ family gathered at Port Fairy on New Year’s Eve in hope of a perfect way to remember a kind and generous man whose passion was his horses.

And Catch A Wave delivered, returning to something like his best after a shock semi-final flop to lead throughout in the Group 1 Ride High Vicbred 3YO colts and geldings’ final.

Soon after they crossed the line the Matthews’ Port Fairy 'gang' rang trainer Andy Gath to share the moment and express their gratitude.

Gath didn’t even bother trying to fight back the tears.

The moment transcended racing as this great game so often does.

Remarkably, it is coming up on four years since harness racing lost one of its most loved regulars around the tracks, Doug Webster.

Dougie would have been in his element in that big, bustling crowd on New Year’s Eve.

If only he’d been there to lead back in Dougs Babe – the mare he bred and is named after him – back to the winner’s enclosure after her stirring win in the Group 1 Vincent Vicbred 4YO mares’ final.

No doubt his brother Geoff, who trained the mare, wished Dougie was there, too.

Dougs Babe’s future is in the US for prominent trainer “Nifty” Norman, but we’ll get to see a bit more of her here before she jets out in February.

Geoff Webster and driver Anthony Butt played giant-slayers with Dougs Babe downing mighty mare Tough Tilly, trained by the all-conquering Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin stables.

But Stewart and Tonkin still made their mark in a huge way on the stellar night of 12 Group 1 races.

They won three finals and produced the two most impressive pacing winners – The Lost Storm and Amore Vita.

The Lost Storm won by almost 40m and his unthinkable 1min52.2sec mile rate for 2240m was just 1.1sec outside the all-aged Melton track record.

“We love this horse, always have,” Stewart said. “He had a couple of gut-busters and was down a bit, but he showed how good is tonight.”

Amore Vita’s winning margin wasn’t great but her performance was equally unthinkable.

The Kiwi-owned star, who won last year’s 2YO Vicbred final for trainer Nathan Purdon, sat outside and was simply too fast and strong for Australia’s champion filly, Encipher.

It was a crushing display.

Importantly, it added to some strong Kiwi flavour through the meeting. Amore Vita is owned by Kiwi horseman Steve Dolan. Stewart and Tonkin’s 2YO fillies’ winner Joyful is half-owned by champion Kiwi trainer Cran Dalgety and Butt, who won aboard Dougs Babe, is a Kiwi Hall of Famer.

Captain Bellasario’s upset win in the Rock N Roll Heaven 4YO entires and geldings’ final reminded us of another friend lost, prolific and popular owner-breeder Jack Munnerley, who bred the gelding. His family still raced Captain Bellasario.

It wound back the clock for one-time powerhouse training duo Jayne Davies and Noel Alexander, who won the 1995 Inter Dominion with Golden Reign, and now train a small team at the Cranbourne training complex.

Trotting’s equivalent of Stewart and Tonkin – or as close as we have to it – the leviathan Yabby Dam's (Pat Driscoll and Anton Golino) team strutted its stuff with two dominant Group 1 trotting finals.

Three-year-old gelding Cravache Dor looks every bit an open-class superstar in the making and toyed with his rivals to win by 10.7m in a slick 1min56.6sec mile rate with Nathan Jack aboard.

Jack also drove Yabby Dams’ three-year-old filly Revelstoke to win her final by 16.7m after stablemate and hot favourite Courmayeur galloped and lost all hope at the start.

In contrast, hobby trainer John Nissen couldn’t wipe the smile from his face after the promising Locksley Lover used the sprint lane to win his 4YO final.

“I’ll take the win, but I still don’t like the sprint lane,” Nissen laughed.

Jack snared the middle pin of his trotting treble aboard The Locomotive who did what he does, found a way to win yet again in a season where he’s won nine of 12 starts and almost $200,000.

Those in the know say the two-year-old fillies are better than the boys, which makes Rockinwithattitude’s nine wins from 14 starts and fighting Vicbred final win even better.

Fittingly, the last race of the night (and year) was won by Visionary for Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars to ice one of the most stunning of breakthrough seasons.

The jury is out on whether the Vicbred finals will remain on New Year’s Eve.

If they don’t, that was a heck of a way to go out.

The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.