Steno storms home in Mares classic at Ballarat

Outstanding mare Steno (Sweet Lou) made amends from a string of placings in top harness racing company  with a well timed burst to take out the Group 3 $50000 Ballarat Isuzu Ute Make Mine Cullen mares classic at Ballarat on Saturday evening.

Steno took all before her in Western Australia before her connections Di and Bernie Kelly brought her back last year with the view to send her to stud. She ran several close placings and in particular could never beat Eye Keep Smiling.

Unfortunately Steno failed to get into foal so the Kellys gave her to Luke McCarthy for another campaign. McCarthy is also the trainer of Eye Keep Smiling who was resuming and was a short priced favourite.

Sweetnikkilou and Look Like Diamonds set a tearaway pace early and eventually McCarthy let Eye Keep Smiling go up alongside the leaders. Steno was positioned by her driver Nathan Jack one out and two back behind Jilliby Willow.

Eye Keep Smiling grabbed the lead on straightening but couldn’t sustain Steno’s finishing burst to go down by a short half head with outsider Isthisjustfantasy six metres away in third placing.

STENO 24 JAN REPLAY

Steno ran her last quarter in 26.7 seconds for an overall mile rate of 1.53.1 for the 1710 metre trip.

Jack was suitably impressed after the event.

That was impressive the way she way she hit the line. A credit to the second horse she was wide early. And did a power of work. But you can’t take anything away from this filly. She knuckled down and chased her down hard.

Luke said if they park her (Eye Keep Smiling) and she does a bit of work don’t be surprised if this one gets close to her and if not beat her. So he was spot on.

You can never be too confident to run down one like Eye Keep Smiling but I was super confident at the 400. If I didn’t beat her I was going to make a race of it. And she really knuckled down. I didn’t need to look at the Board to know that the second quarter was going to be really pedestrian and the last quarter was going to be super fast. What a great mare.

I was confident I had won.

There’s no doubt Eye Keep Smiling will be improved by her effort. At this stage both Eye Keep Smiling and Steno will be set for the Group 1 $150,000 Queen of the Pacific to be run at Melton on 14 February.

For complete race results, click here.

by Tony Milanese, for Harnesslink