Kiwi champ bolts for brilliant win

By Tim O’Connor (HRV)

New Zealand champion Bolt For Brilliance silenced his detractors with a dazzling heat performance on night one of the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship in Ballarat last Saturday night.

Below par results and nagging health concerns had many questioning the star squaregaiter’s place as favourite for the series, but the five-year-old showed why with a dominant front-running victory in his first start on Australian soil.

Trained and driven by legendary Kiwi horseman Tony Herlihy, Bolt For Brilliance quickly assumed the lead and was never challenged on his way to a seven-metre win.

Sundons Courage (Chris Angove/Ryan Duffy) threw a spanner in the works when he crossed race favourite Majestuoso (Andy and Kate Gath) and Bolt For Brilliance, but Herlihy’s charge was then allowed to glide to the top soon after.

He controlled things from the front and then dashed home in a slick last quarter of 27.7 to leave Sundons Courage and Majestuoso in his wake.

“He was very lazy in front and very relaxed, which is great for a series like this where you’ve got three races in a week,” Herlihy said.

“So hopefully he’ll come through it really good, which you’d like to think he will.”

Just Believe and Queen Elida were expected to fight out the opening heat of the night, and it played out just as many expected.