Connections of Vicbred pacers and trotters are benefiting from $7000 First Win bonuses.
Midnightatpinevale, Aballofmuscle, Truscott Hall and Garston Girl all won their way through to $50,000 finals of the Empire Stallions Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic series at Tabcorp Park Melton last night.
The four three-year-old trotters won their $10,000 heats, with all four heats broadcast live into France where punters wagered on the races via the French tote (PMU).
The $50,000 finals, separate races for fillies and colts/geldings, will be run at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday, December 17.
The Monday night Melton meetings broadcast into France are an important part of Harness Racing Victoria’s (HRV) efforts to showcase the industry to overseas markets with the industry receiving vital revenue via wagering.
In addition to winning the $5000 first place prizemoney last night the connections of two of the four heat winners, Midnightatpinevale (by Lawman out of Midnight Rush) and Garston Girl (by Lawman out of Pocket Fantasy), received $7000 Vicbred first win bonuses.
Midnightatpinevale, driven and trained by Amy Tubbs, led all the way in a mile rate of 2:00.5 to win the first heat of the fillies’ Classic over 1720m by 2m over fast-finishing Star In Sight (Chris Svanosio) with Breezin Around (Greg Sugars) third.
Peter Manning trained Garston Girl (Sugars) to win the second fillies’ heat, rating 2:00.4 to score by 3.6m over Rosanna Lindy in second (Rodney Petroff), with Margaret Ruth (Anne-Maree Conroy) running on well for third.
Aballofmuscle (Muscle Mass-Baileys Model) and Truscott Hall (Angus Hall-Truscott Photo) won the colts’ and geldings heats, both driven by Chris Alford. Aballofmuscle defeated runner-up Goodtime Pe Rabbit (Glen Craven) and Garshaway (Jodi Quinlan) in a mile rate of 2:02.8, while Truscott Hall rated 2:00.7 and was 2.1m too strong for Magicool (Matthew Craven) with All Muscle (Sugars) third.
Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic heats are restricted to Vicbred eligible horses, who have not won total stakes in excess of $10,000 at acceptance time for the heats.
“Vicbred is the most important futurity series we have,” trainer Larry Eastman says.
The Vicbred Platinum program is backed by the Victorian Daniel Andrews Government, which reaffirmed their ongoing commitment to the scheme in May.
HRV’s Vicbred program is worth over $9 million each year in bonuses and stake money and provides incentives for people to “think Vicbred” and “industry first” when breeding and purchasing standardbreds.
Find out more about Vicbred at www.vicbred.com.au
Media enquiries:
Cody Winnell (HRV Media/Communications Manager)
t: 03 8378 0288 | e: cwinnell@hrv.org.au | tw: @codywinnell
