The Otago attack on the premier mares' championship at Addington next week could be coming from two fronts.
New Years Jay, a stunning winner at Addington on Friday, is expected to line up in the group 2 1950m mobile pace along with the Roxburgh mare Al Raza, who won the Oamaru Cup on Sunday.
New Years Jay's driver and co-trainer, Jonny Cox, sat at the rear of the field and even commentator Mark McNamara was writing off the 7yr-old at the top of the straight.
But the daughter of Washington VC showed a sizzling turn of foot to down Woodlea DJ by 1 lengths, impressing not only the punters who backed her into favourite, but Cox as well.
''She surprised me a wee bit - I knew she had speed but not that speed. She went super,'' Cox said.
The stipendiary stewards' report noted that New Years Jay paced roughly in the final 200m, although Cox said that was a byproduct of her extreme speed.''
That's just her - it's in her gait, really.
''We were humming and her legs were going quicker than what she could probably handle. It's nothing really to worry about. She didn't gallop and that's the main thing.
''She was going that quick I had to go somewhere and luckily that half-gap turned into a whole gap.''
The win in 1.55.9 for the mile takes the mare's record to six wins from nine starts, which has prompted Cox and co-trainer Amber Hoffman to consider tackling the leading mares in the country - Adore Me aside.
''We'll ask a bit of her next time going in against the big girls but I think she's worthy of going in,'' he said.
''You've still got the likes of Venus Serena and Lancewood Lizzie and Pemberton Shard and those types of horses, but if she draws well I think she will be thereabouts."
Cox said there was nothing amiss with Jaccka Justy after he was scratched from the group 3 Southern Lights at Ascot Park last Thursday.
''He just wasn't quite right. We didn't want a gutbuster, really,'' he said.
''It was probably a good thing we missed it. They went 4.07 and he wasn't quite ready for that. He'll go to Addington at the end of the month [for the group 3 Summer Trotting free-for-all].''
The Cox-Hoffman team was in winning form with Beaudiene Beaut Babe at Oamaru on Sunday.
The half-sister to Jewels winners Beaudiene Bad Babe (22 wins) and Beaudiene Boaz, a huge victor at Gloucester Park on Friday night, added value to her future brood-mare career with the win, although Cox was slightly disappointed.
''She didn't dash up as good as what I thought she would, but she got there in the end and there was a headwind up the straight so we got the job done.''
