WHAT a joy it has been having a front row seat to the rise and rise of Ladies In Red.

It was almost a year ago I started to think she was the best filly (or mare) Australia had seen since Tailamade Lombo 20 years ago.

Just the way she continued to defy the odds, win from anywhere and smash the clock with sectional times.

She has always been as strong as she is fast and we should have known that would stand her in good stead when she took on the boys, which she did so successfully for the first time in last Saturday night’s $305,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park.

We also should have known when Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin confirmed the trip north a couple of months back that it showed how highly they rated her. I mean, they virtually never take horses to Queensland.

Then I heard it with my own ears.

Stewart and Tonkin kindly let me visit the stable a couple of weeks ago with a crew to film a feature story on Ladies In Red.

She wasn’t a standout in the stable (she’s only small), was largely treated like all the rest and waited her turn to head onto the track on a slow jog day.

Once she jogged, had been washed down and was back in her stall, Stewart and Tonkin joined us for a chat.

I have done a few of these before and most of the time you pretty much know how they’ll go … but not this one.

Tonkin truly shocked me halfway through when asked just how good she was he said “she’s the best we’ve trained".

Think about that. It wasn’t that long ago injury cutdown Ride High in his prime. They’ve also had stars like Poster Boy, Guaranteed and many others.

I wasn’t the only one shocked … well, surprised at least.

Stewart didn’t agree with Tonkin.

“This is something we argue about at home,” Tonkin said. “I think she’s the best because she’s just so dominant and turns up every start and delivers.”

Stewart countered: “I want to see how she goes against the boys first. It’s a big call to say she’s the best we’ve had, we’ve had some great ones.”

Ladies In Red’s demolition job last Saturday – running away from a stellar field to win by almost 12 metres – was all the convincing Stewart needed.

“I’d have to agree now,” she smiled after the win.

Driver Nathan Jack added: “She’s something else and she’s only knee-high to a grasshopper … she makes great horses almost look second-rate.”

But it was owner-breeder Bill Anderson who summed it up best: “She’s something special and the sport needs champions like her.”

HRV CEO Dayle Brown remarked after the win: “She just might be the horse harness racing has been waiting for.”

Excitingly, Anderson and his wife, Anne, intend to race Ladies In Red for another couple of seasons providing she holds her form.

“We’ve got enough broodmares,” Bill laughed.

Anderson unashamedly credited Amazing Dream’s win as a four-year-old mare in the inaugural Rising Sun last year as the inspiration for sending Ladies In Red north.

“It was Anne who said if Amazing Dream could win it last year, we had to give Ladies In Red her chance,” Bill said.

Ladies In Red headlined a remarkable night for Victorians at Albion Park.

Her stablemate Maajida won the Group 3 Fleur Del Lil; Jess Tubbs’ Triple Eight flew home to win the Group 3 Mr Feelgood and Matty Craven’s Better Isolate blew his rivals away in the Rising Sun Consolation.

* Pictures courtesy Adam Hamilton and Dan Costello.

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.