Two queens can’t be separated
IT took two minutes and 40 seconds to run the more than two kilometres but when the winning pair got to the post they could not be separated.
In an almighty upset – or half an upset at least - outsider Jo’s Dream shared the spoils with race favourite Partyon in the Rosslands Queen of Hearts at Alexandra Park on Friday night.
The outsider stalked the favourite all the way but when they got to the winning post there was not even a nose in it.
The dead heat result means the two horses were separated by less than one-thousandth of a second.
On the inside was Amanda Kiddie’s horse Jo’s Dream and on the outside was Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen’s charge Partyon.
Friday night’s victory was Partyon’s fifth at Group I level. For Jo’s Dream, Friday night was just her third start in Group I company with her previous best result in the top grade being her fifth in the 2016 edition of the Queen Of Hearts.
For the partnership of Purdon and Rasmussen, it was their 37th victory of the current season, for Kiddie it was the 15th win of her career.
Kiddie, who trains at Pukekohe, had never won a Group I race before. Purdon and Rasmussen have now won the Rosslands Queen of Hearts for five consecutive years.
Jo’s Dream has now won $129,824 in stakes $35,250 of that came on Friday night. Partyon’s share of the winner’s cheque took her career earnings to $598,895.
Like most punters at Alexandra Park, race caller Aaron White was not prepared to declare a winner before judge Graeme McClennan’s call.
White’s task was complicated further by second favourite Bonnie Joan booming home down the middle of the track.
‘‘‘It’s very, very tight. Very tight on the line, Partyon, Jo’s Dream, I’ve got to stay out of it, it’s that close,’’ White said.
The dead heat was also a dream result for Jo’s
Dream driver Andre Poutama.
The shared victory was his first in a Group I race.
The TAB pay half dividends for dead heats. Partyon’s $2 win price was cut to $1 and Jo’s Dream’s $36.60 quote was slashed to $18.30.
Kiddie and Poutama’s upset – or half upset – was not enough to spoil the party for Purdon and Rasmussen.
They won the three-year-old Alabar Classic with the unbeaten Chase Auckland, the Franklin Cup with emerging star Vincent and the last race of the night with Stress Factor to give them four wins.