EMMA Stewart will have a Victoria Derby runner for the fifth year in a row.
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Ideal For Real ($6.30) qualified for the group 1 $200,000 three-year-old classic final at Melton on Saturday with a fast-finishing second in a heat.
The son of American Ideal just failed to catch Aztec Bromac ($3.10 favourite) at Melton last Saturday night to force his way into the field.
Ideal For Real was the Smythe Creek trainer’s only derby heat runner.
Stewart, though, will have to wait to win her first group 1 Victoria Cup.
Guaranteed led home her trio, finishing fourth to Christen Me at Melton after racing in the death seat.
Philadelphia Man finished fifth, with Restrepo last.
How they finished: 3.40 fav Christen Me NZ fr (D J Dunn) 1, 16.20 Lnnytheshark fr (C A Alford) 2, 7.80 Adore Me NZ fr (M Purdon) 3. Then followed: 5.10 Guaranteed 11.60 Philadelphia Man 24.50 David Hercules 70.10 For A Reason 4.30 Beautide 18.00 Terror To Love NZ 132.00 Im Corzin Terror NZ 26.70 Franco Ledger NZ 37.60 Restrepo last. Scr: Chilli Palmer NZ. 1.9m, 3.7m. Time: 2:40.00 (rate 1:55.00).
IT WAS a matter of four of the best for Emma Stewart and champion reinsman Gavin Lang in Ballarat on Friday night.
The Stewart-Lang combination dominated with a quartet of wins – all on fillies and mares. Lovelist ($1.50 favourite) set the ball rolling in the Dodds Plumbing 3yo Pace, 2200m.
Then followed another 3yo, Delight Me ($1.04 favourite) in the Active Electrical C1 Pace, 1710m, Beauty Secret ($2.60) in the MG Walls C7/better Pace, 220m, and Bettors Package ($1.10 favourite) in the Mick McKay Fish For Gold C2-C3 Pace, 2200m.
For Beauty Secret it was the six-year-old’s first race start since Menangle on November 29.
She had been set to race in the Ballarat Pacing Cup on December 13, but was one of four Stewart-trained runners dramatically scratched from her home-town group 1 event after stewards deemed a brand of sulky used by the stable too wide and unable to used in the feature.
Beauty Secret has now won three races on end for 24 career victories in 51 starts and $388,000 in stakes.
Stablemate The Good Times ($22.60) made it a stable quinella.
Chilli Palmer, who was an emergency for Saturday night’s Victoria Cup, was expected to give the race a shake-up.
However, the $1.90 favourite was unable to make up ground after Beauty Secret came charging home.
Reinforcing the run, Stewart is enjoying at the moment, Delight Me has now won four times in a row for a career record of five wins in six starts, and Bettors Package has won four of her latest five visits to the races.
Dunnstown trainer-driver David Murphy was not about to be left out in Ballarat.
Fresh from a driving treble at the previous Ballarat race meeting, Murphy’s stable produced Vote Pedro ($9.40) to get the money in the JD’S Community Support T4/better Trot, 2200m.
The five-year-old has five wins for $26,000.