Commander Jewel, winner of the New Zealand Trotting Oaks at Addington on Saturday, will be entered for the New Zealand Trotting Derby next Friday night, but she is an unlikely starter.
"I will nominate her for the Derby but it is unlikely she will start. It is tough for a filly against the colts and geldings," Mark Jones, her Burnham trainer-driver, said.
"The Oaks was her mission and now her main aim is the Harness Jewels."
Jones won the Trotting Derby last year with the filly, Shezoneoftheboyz. She left stride and finished last in the Oaks then run a fortnight after the Derby.
Shezoneoftheboyz was subsequently transferred to Victorian trainer Craig Demmler. She won her only start in Australia in December before she was spelled. She has just resumed work.
A filly has not won the Trotting Oaks-Derby double since the Oaks was run in 2003. Jones drove Pocaro to win the Oaks in 2009. Pocaro carried on to win the Harness Jewels in the hands of trainer Mark Purdon. Pocaro, who won in Auckland on Friday night, was flown to Melbourne yesterday.
Commander Jewel is raced by Bernard (Jim) McDonald, of Oxford. He paid $15,500 for the the daughter of CR Commando and In De Fence at the 2009 Premier Yearling Sale. She was a replacement for Crystal Star, who won 11 races including the Four-Year-old Championship when trained by Jones.
Commander Jewel was bred by Don McRae, of Invercargill. She is the second foal of In De Fence, a winner and sister to Del's Hoof N It (seven wins as a trotter).
• Carabella set her fourth New Zealand record this season when she recorded 2.19.7 (1.55.2 mile rate) for 1950m (mobile) in the $140,000 Sires' Stakes Final. She led and won by a length and a-half from the strong-finishing Tatijana Bromac.
Carabella lowered the record of 2.21.3 she shared with Joyfuljoy (2009). Carabella had run that time in November.
Carabella has also set records for a filly of 2.41 for 2200m (mobile) and 2.55.8 for 2400m (mobile) this season.
• Terror To Love and Gold Ace were 1.2sec outside the 1950m (mobile) record held by Stunin Cullen when they dead-heated in the Flying Stakes.
• Western Cullen won the $250,000 Yearling Sales Pace with a brilliant finishing burst. He gave trainer Mark Purdon his fifth win in the race. Purdon, who has Grant Payne as a training partner, was in a sole capacity when he won the race with Jack Cade (2001), Light And Sound (2002), Lennon (2003) and Steve McQueen (2007).
Purdon also drove Il Vicolo, who he co-owned with John Seaton, to win the race in 1994.
Blair Orange, who drove Western Cullen, partnered Steve McQueen and Lennon. Orange drove Dancing Diamonds to win the $195,000 Yearling Sales Pace for 2yr-old fillies in Auckland last month.
Western Cullen is raced by Paul and Tony Poli, of Perth. They bought the Christian Cullen-Western Dream gelding from Invercargill breeders Vin and Daphne Devery in December on the recommendation of Purdon. Western Cullen, a buy back for $37,500 at the Premier Yearling Sale, had won a trial for Devery in November.
He is the first foal of Western Dream, whose 13 wins included the Sires' Stakes Final and New Zealand Oaks in 2006.
The Polis have won 11 races with Dasher VC after buying him out of the stable of Clark Barron.
Western Cullen is set to join Dasher VC in the Perth stable of Ross Oliviera after the Breeders' Crown in Victoria in August.
Ricky May drove Carabella, Power Of Tara and Ultimate Player to win for trainer Brendon Hill and owner, Cavalla Bloodstock. May was fined $300 after he admitted striking the sulky of Dunarunner with Van Washing Man in the early stages of race 11. Van Washing Man tangled and lost his chance.
