Just For Show ridden by Michael Dee wins the Interpath 3YO Colts & Geldings Maiden Plate (Emerging Stars Series Heat 1) at Sportsbet-Ballarat Racecourse. (Photo by Pat Scala/Racing Photos)
The inaugural Emerging Stars series will come to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday (7 December) at Sportsbet-Ballarat with the $250,000 final bringing an end to the $1 million maiden series.
The Emerging Stars series has provided owners and participants in Victoria’s west with a chance to compete for significant prizemoney across the heats and final. Since late October, 10 maiden heats worth $75,000 each have been contested at Ballarat, Warrnambool, and Geelong.
The Sportsbet Emerging Stars Final, which will be run over 1400m on Ballarat Cup Day, will feature a diverse field of 10 up-and-coming contenders, including five heat winners and three heat placegetters.
The Ben, Will and JD Hayes-trained Just For Show, who triumphed in the opening heat at Ballarat, is among the key runners, with superstar jockey Craig Williams set to take the reins on Saturday.
The three-year-old gelding narrowly defeated Nimbustwothousand in the series opener with the Gavin Beddgood-trained galloper looking this time to break his maiden and go one better in the final after also finishing runner up in Heat 8 at Geelong in November.
The quinella from Heat 7, Dream All Day (Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr) and Illuminance (Julius Sandhu) have also accepted for the final.
The younger sister to Chris Waller’s star mare Atishu, Dream All Day, blitzed her competitors three weeks ago at Sportsbet-Ballarat, storming home to win by three lengths. The four-year-old, who is the the current odds-on favourite, has been kept fresh since that victory and will have Jordan Childs aboard on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Illuminance is still searching for her maiden win. She has recorded two second placings in the series thus far, along with four more runner-up finishes in her 10 starts.
The winner of Heat 10, Juggernaut Joan (Patrick and Michelle Payne), will also be among the key finalists, looking to back up her dominant performance last week at Ladbrokes-Geelong. The four-year-old mare is only three starts into her career, with a win and two second placings under her belt.
Winner of Heat 5, Typhoon Tony, will also be looking to repeat his performance from Sportsbet-Ballarat for owner and trainer Simone Walker, after beating his opponents by a length last month.
Walker made her mark as a leading harness racing trainer-driver, competing in Group 1 races, before branching out over the past five years to train thoroughbreds as well.
After driving in multiple Ballarat Pacing Cups, she will be hoping to enjoy her biggest success as a thoroughbred trainer on Ballarat Cup Day.
“The Emerging Stars final is a great opportunity for the smaller trainers to have a go at bigger prizemoney,” she said.
“It has a roll-on effect where if we do well in it, we can reinvest in more horses, and it would mean the world to us.”
Rounding out the field is the winner of Heat 9 Regal Secret (Phillip Stokes); Heat 6 placegetter Dunori (Ciaron Maher); Kittyhawk (Andrew Noblet) who is the younger half-sister to Group 1 winning mare Silent Sedition; and Lovenne (Rebecca Kelly).
The Emerging Stars Final is Race 2 at 12:45pm (AEDT) this Saturday at Sportsbet-Ballarat and will be broadcast live on Racing.com and RSN. The first of the 10 races will be run at 12:10pm.