WHEN it comes to speaking with the Smythes Creek stable of Emma Stewart about the prospects of Beauty Secret in the group 1 $100,000 PETstock Ballarat Pacing Cup on Saturday night, mum's the word - literally.
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Stewart and partner Clayton Tonkin are keeping the talk around the mare low-key.
They are not ruling her out of becoming their third Ballarat Pacing Cup winner, but they are well aware of how difficult a task it is for the mare against ""the boys".
It's more than that though.
Beauty Secret is a mum.
The six-year-old is the mother of three foals and if all goes well her fourth offspring will be on the ground next spring.
So she not only has the opportunity to be the first mare to take out the Ballarat Pacing Cup since Lombo Rapida in 2000, she can also be the first mother to do so.
Stewart said it had always been the plans of her Maryborough breeder Peter Gleeson to breed from Beauty Secret early while keeping her racing.
Gleeson has been a highly successful standardbred breeder for more than 30 years.
Copper Way opened his winning account as a breeder in 1980 and since then he has had many success stories and hundreds of winners.
Beauty Secret comes from arguably his most successful maternal line, going back four generations to Hot Foot.
Gleeson acquired Hot Foot in the early 1980s and among the 10 winners she left was Larrakeyah Lady - the mother of AG Hunter Cup winner and earner of almost $1m Safe And Sound.
Larrakeyah Lady also produced Beauty Secret's granddam Lifeline.
Beauty Secret is one of the success stories in standardbred breeding of embryo transfer and the use of surrogate mares, which make it possible for racemares to continue on the racetrack while their foal is carried and delivered by a recipient mare.
Beauty Secret's oldest foals is unraced Art Major two-year-old filly Striking Beauty, which is also trained by Stewart.
She also has a yearling filly by Somebeachsomewhere and weanling colt by Mach Three, and has put back into foal to Art Major.
While her breeding program continues, Stewart's main focus remains firmly on Beauty Secret's racing career as she lines up along highly credentialed stablemates Guaranteed, Philadelphia Man and last season's winner Restrepo in the Ballarat Pacing Cup, 2710m.
While this trio will be front and centre in the helter-skelter of the early battle for the lead, Beauty Secret will have time to settle near the rear from outside the second row.
Stewart said it was an ideal draw for the group 1-winning mare, which was racing in peak form and coming off back-to-back wins over 1609m at Menangle.
"It's a big ask, but she's stepped up."
She said the draw should allow her to work into the race at the business end.
As for what happen in the early battle for the lead when the Cup is expected to take shape, Stewart said they would not be giving any of their drivers - Greg Sugars on Restrepo, Nathan Jack on Philadelphia Man and Gavin Lang on Guaranteed any special directives.
And as for having four starters, Stewart and Tonkin said there were no guarantees when it came to getting a win.
"It still has to be won," Tonkin said.
