Believe this – Group 1 glory

By Tim O’Connor (HRV)

At just his fourth start for the new stable, Just Believe became a Group 1 winner when he held out star four-year-olds Ollivici and Queen Elida to claim Saturday night’s Aldebaran Park Bill Collins Trotters Sprint at Tabcorp Park Melton.

Sent to Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars’ Myrniong yard by connections earlier this year after Michael Hughes’ decision to step away from training, the emerging squaregaiter scored his third win for the yard with a tough performance in the 1720m dash.

Sugars sent his charge forward from barrier four, but was left exposed when Sundons Courage (Chris Angove/Ryan Duffy) found the lead in the early stages of the race. But the master reinsman didn’t panic and controlled the tempo from the running line before his charge sprinted best to hold out Ollivici (Chris Lang), who couldn’t bridge the gap despite a soft run on his back.

Queen Elida (Brent Lilley/Chris Alford), the race favourite, stormed home from back in the field, but could only get 4.6m from the winner.

Sugars said pre-race he didn’t want to be parked.

“I was hoping a situation might unfold that I’d be able to work forward with Ollivici and (be) a chance of finding the front, so initially I thought it was not great once he lobbed my back,” he said.

“I was always pretty confident I had the leader’s measure, so I just had to rate him accordingly.”

Sugars said the Group 1 victory helped cap a remarkable period of success for his team.

“It has been a sensational last 12 or 18 months for our stable and probably way beyond what we could have dreamed of,” he said.

Just Believe has won 11 races from 45 starts, with his victory in the Bill Collins backing up earlier triumphs for trainer Tubbs in the Shepparton and Kilmore trotters cups.