Filly pays the bills, and then some

By Michael Howard (HRV)

A precision performance and a beauty for the battlers made for many smiles at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday night, as Group 1 glory was grabbed by stables big and small.

The Aldebaran Park Vicbred Home Grown Classic finals have again delivered a magic moment, with father-and-son training team David and Brad Barnes capturing their first Group 1 with Mumpaysthebills winning the three-year-old trotting fillies’ final.

Winning reinsman Craig Demmler lauded winners as “terrific people”, telling TrotsVision “I get more of a kick out of driving a winner for these sort of people, because they are (hobbyists) and they just enjoy it and their horses are going really good at the moment.”

Opportunity knocked for Mumpaysthebills when short-priced pair Atego Dawn and Be My Star both galloped out of contention, with the latter – the race favourite – robbing reinsman Josh Dickie of a potential clean sweep of the night’s finals.

Dickie and his steer Hes A Hammer put in a flawless performance in the preceding three-year-old colts and geldings final, when he sat quietly on leader’s back and then struck late for trainer David Aiken and owner Domenic Martello.

“Just pleased to get an opportunity like this tonight – to drive for a very good trainer like David Aiken and his client Domenic Martello, who’s actually a client of ours as well,” said Dickie, who’s recently established in Victoria after an outstanding New Zealand career.

“Dom’s been a great supporter of ours for a couple of years, so to be asked to drive this horse tonight, I was very honoured, and the way the horse got the job done, winning a Group 1 for us, doesn’t get much better.”

From gate one Hes A Hammer took the back of leader Hephaestus Phoenix, who was kept honest by Sir Eros on his outside with a 28.8sec first quarter and then a series of even quarters.

“It just worked out perfectly,” Dickie said. “One of those races where you couldn’t script it any better. They ran even enough time, when I was turning around the (last) corner he was just travelling so well. You could just tell he was going to pick them up pretty quick.”

And he did, winning by 2.8 metres from Chris Svanosio’s Hephaestus Phoenix, with a gap back to Sir Eros in third.

“He’s a lovely gaited trotter, he’s got lovely cruising speed when you ask him to run,” Dickie said of the winner. “Tonight it was just beautiful, he’s lovely to drive, he sits off the bit, you only have to put the stick on his tail and he responds to you.

“In 12 months’ time he’s the sort of trotter you’d like to see how he’s getting on, because he’s a very well put together horse. Potentially in the future this horse could be one of our Grand Circuit trotters.”

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-03-22/20

in the 22 March 2022 edition
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