A trip to Victoria is on the cards for Blame It On Me following her win in the Group 2 Collins Homes Granny Smith Final in Devonport on Sunday night.
The Big Jim mare was going into the race third-up from a break and was sent out the $1.20 favourite after coming up with the pole draw.
But the race didn’t go to script early when Better Amour crossed in the early stages of the 2665-metre event, but driver Natalee Emery was able to get straight off the pegs with Blame It On Me and was able to retake the lead at the three-lap mark.
From there, Blame It On Me was always going to be hard to run down, going on to score by 6.6 metres over Better Amour, with Iden Gorgeous back in third position in a mile rate of 2m 3.3s.
“One is better than 11 around Devonport, but those horses drawn in the middle of the track do gain a little bit more speed coming out of the gate, it was probably not what I anticipated, but it was not totally unexpected,” said driver Natalee Emery post-race.
Although defeated as a short price favourite in the Prelude, Emery was still pleased with the run.
“I know her back to front and she went really well in the prelude, although she didn’t win I was super happy with her running third,” she said.
Blame It On Me had a rushed preparation to make the $50,000 event after trainer Doug Nettlefold had planned a preparation around the race being held later in the year, as was the case last season, with the mare being rushed into the final third-up from a break.
“We found out the race had been moved eight weeks and it cut into our program a fair bit, so it was a short program which meant she wasn’t quite 100% in the prelude but was able to freshen her up a bit after those two tough runs,” the trainer said.
Blame It On Me, who won the three-year-old leg of the Tasmanian Sires’ Stakes series, is lucky to be back on track after an injury that saw her sidelined for several months last season.
“Considering when you go back 12-15 months ago she had broken leg, she has got three pins it now, so to get her back to the races and win races like this shows you how gutsy the horse is,” Nettlefold explained.
The trainer is contemplating a trip across Bass Strait for the pacer.
“There is a mares series coming up next month (in Victoria), so she was on trial a little bit tonight for that,” said Nettlefold.
The trainer is in the process of making plans for the trip, given the current COVID-19 situation in Victoria.
