Photo by Stuart McCormick.
IT was just what the Inter Dominion needed.
Two of the biggest stars of the series – Bolt For Brilliance and Expensive Ego – were both under a cloud, but delivered big time on opening night and are favourites to win their respective finals.
First out was superstar Kiwi trotter Bolt For Brilliance, who almost didn’t make the trip across the Tasman after a “bug” forced him out of a Group 1 race in Christchurch just two weeks earlier.
But normality was restored when the gifted five-year-old made a one-act affair of his first Inter Dominion qualifying heat at Ballarat last night (Saturday).
Bolt For Brilliance’s odds for the final on December 10 were slashed from $2.60 to $2.
“There’s always a bit of relief when you come after and win after the past couple of weeks we’ve had, but everything said he was back on track before we left home last week,” trainer-driver Tony Herlihy said.
“It was great to start with a win, but even better to get away with a pretty soft sort of run as well.
“Hopefully he comes through it well and he should keep improving as the series goes on.”
It’s straight back into action for Bolt For Brilliance and all the Inter Dominion runners with the second round of heats over the sprint trip of 1690m at Shepparton on Tuesday night.
Bolt For Brilliance has the back row (gate nine) at Shepparton, but it’s a weaker heat that what he won at Ballarat and should see him win again.
Expensive Ego was the watch horse of the pacing series on opening night, mostly because his most recent trip down from NSW to Victoria resulted in an inglorious and mystifying seventh in the Group 1 Victoria Cup on October 8.
This from a pacer who 12 months earlier won all three heats of the Inter Dominion and was first across the line in the final, only to lose it on protest and be relegated to second.
Co-trainer and driver Luke McCarthy was adamant Expensive Ego was primed for a big showing and his stable star delivered with the run of the night for a huge second in the strongest and fastest pacing heat.
On a wet track, he did all the work outside leader and favourite Mach Dan and beat him, but was dive-bombed late by Act Now. The 1min54.1sec was 2.5sec faster than any other pacing heat and just 0.4sec outside the track record.
“We were thrilled with him before the Victoria Cup and have been since, that run is just a mystery,” McCarthy said. “We brought him, and all our horses, in a bit big with four runs ahead of them so he should only improve on what he did tonight.
“I’m sure he’s one of, if not the best horse in the series and we saw last year how he thrives on the races so close together.”
Expensive Ego firmed to $5 outright favourite in an open market for the pacing final.
It was a fantastic start to the series for two of Victoria’s leading stables, Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin along with Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars, who both won two heats.
Stewart and Tonkin’s wins came with pacers Act Now and Honolua Bay, while Tubbs and Sugars won with trotter Just Believe and pacer Better Eclipse.