Broadways Best and Nathan Jack win the Ladyship Cup
Saturday night’s $25,000 Terang & District Co-Op Pacing Cup is Victorian harness racing’s banner event this weekend, but arguably the best horse in action over the next few days will go around in a $5000 event at Melton’s Tabcorp Park on Friday night.
Ladyship Mile aspirant Broadways Best will be back in action six nights after taking out the $20,000 Group 3 BIG6 Angelique Club Cup on BIG6 Hunter Cup night.
That was the gun five-year-old’s first outing since going under as a $1.50 favourite in the Tabcorp Australasian Breeders Crown final last August and trainer Shannon McLean said the PETstock Animal Supplies Pace (2240m) suited best at this stage of her preparation.
“There aren’t a lot of other races around at the moment besides the (Country) Cups and we didn’t want to be going into those second-up,” the South Gisborne trainer said.
“It’s only 20 minutes down the road, so we can go around there and she can get a bit of fitness and hopefully pick up a cheque.
“We always had this race penciled in – it all hinged around how we she went on Saturday – but she pulled up really well and we’re mindful of getting her race fit if we want to head to a race like the Ladyship (on March 5).”
Broadways Best, with Chris Alford in the cart, produced a trademark gritty performance to post a 1:57.3 mile rate – including 28.8 and 28.2-second closing quarters – in her Angelique win over Hectic and Tara Royale.
McLean was thrilled to her see record such a strong win given race fitness was his only query going into the event.
“I was very happy with her work and the way she’d trialed 12 days before, she was spot on with everything she could do at home, the only box that wasn’t ticked was sharpness and race fitness,” McLean said.
“It was great to see and the sky’s the limit for her hopefully.”
The daughter of Village Jasper, now a winner of 16 of 31 starts, will start from outside the front row (barrier seven) in Friday night’s event.
Classy Lance Justice-trained five-year-old Coastal (barrier six) heads her list of rivals, which also include the well-drawn Indigo bay (one), Hunter Cup night winner Shortys Star (four) and capable types Onedin Hustler (five), Megasam (eight) and Watchmefella (nine).
Providing she comes through Friday night’s race well, Broadways Best will most likely run at Tabcorp Park on February 25 before hopefully gaining an invitation to the $100,000 Group 1 Ladyship Mile on March 5 – the day that McLean is getting married.
