Sugar Pie Honey beats a hot field in impressive win

Former star juvenile Sugar Pie Honey (Sweet Lou) proved her previous win at Menangle was no fluke when she gave a powerful display in the Bestinbeds Ladyship Pace at Menangle on Saturday evening.

The four year old mare has always produced high speed and this was shown to the fore when she showed brilliant early speed to go to the lead. But driver Ashleigh Delosa elected to take a trail when Tokyo Rose persisted in eventually taking the lead.

The pair ran a scintillating 26.4 seconds for the first quarter as Cameron Hart on Tokyo Rose tried to give his mare a breather but she still ran a second quarter in 27.9 seconds. The rest of the field including the highly fancied Steno and Gunna Reload were both well back as they found it difficult to catch the leaders.

Sugar Pie Honey was entitled to get tired in the home straight as outsider Harlequin started to make her challenge.

SUGAR PIE HONEY 23 MAY REPLAY

But Sugar Pie Honey showed plenty of resilience in holding on and she was able to hold off Harlequin by just over a metre with Steno doing her best work at the finish another three metres away in third.

In winning Sugar Pie Honey ran a personal best of 1.49.1. As a two year old Sugar Pie Honey won the New South Wales Breeders Challenge Final and as a three year was narrowly beaten in the Final. This time in its taken a bit of time for her to hit her straps but there can be no doubt she is back with a vengeance and ready to give a great sight in the forthcoming mares classics. She’s trained by the very astute Rickie Alchin who has a knack of getting his pacers to return to form after a lapse.

Winning driver Ashleigh Delosa commented

She had no luck at the start of the season a lot of bad luck with the barriers and bad luck in the running. Her last two runs I’ve made sure she’s had no back luck and just sent her forward.

It was a big test tonight with those better mares and I’m really proud of her winning. There was a lot of speed early, I thought everyone was trying to get over to the fence before her which they did but she kept fighting on hard. I think Brisbane’s her main aim for those mares races.

Harlequin probably ran the best run of her career in finishing second while Steno who never really was in the running coming home strongly. She is headed to Queensland for the mares feature in July. If Sugar Pie Honey goes there she has the class to match it with the big guns especially if she leads but she’d have to be at very best to match it with the nation’s best mare Captains Mistress.

Both Gunna Reload and Soho Americano who finished well back should be given another chance with a better draw.

For complete race results, click here.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink