As Keinbah trainer Shane Tritton prepares Mach Beauty and Easy On The Eye for the pinnacle of Australasian harness racing in Perth, he sees the irony in what he has left at home.
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Arms Of An Angel, a four-year-old mare, has shocked pundits with her first three starts in Australia and is now “technically the fastest horse” in Tritton’s stable.
After an eye-catching win at Newcastle in a one minute, 58.7 second mile rate over 2030 metres on October 23, the Kiwi pacer has twice scorched over 1609m at Menangle.
With barely a touch from driver Lauren Panella, Arms Of An Angel has won in the second and fourth fastest times by a mare in Australian pacing history. She clocked 1.50.7 on November 1 and 1.50.3 last Saturday night.
Only the retired Adore Me, which ran a southern hemisphere record for all pacers of 1.47.7, has gone faster among Australian mares.
The group 1 Ladyship Mile in February is the target for Arms Of An Angel but Tritton admitted it was hard to find races to match to mare’s potential.
“It’s kind of hard because she’s come from nowhere,” said Tritton from Perth, where he is preparing his team for the Interdominion.
“We’re sort of scrambling to see what we should do. Obviously the Ladyship Mile is the main target, but there’s few better mares races coming up, including the $50,000 heats, so we’ll just work through those.
“She’s definitely exciting and technically the fastest horse in my stable now.
“Over a mile, she’s definitely exciting and won untouched again the other night. She’s didn’t pull the plugs, so we don’t really know what she’s capable of.
“It’s pretty scary, but we’re certainly happy to have her.”
Victorian breeder and trainer Zac Cornell, who owns Tritton-trained pacers Mach Beauty and Suave Stuey Lombo, bought Arms Of An Angel after a 12-hour stay in New Zealand in early September to inspect prospects highlighted by agent Garrick Knight.
Arms Of An Angel, which had just two wins from 23 starts, was the standout but Cornell admitted she has performed well above his expectations in Australia.
“The wife and I went over there, I drove about five or six horses, looked at about 10 or 12 trials, and I liked her best by a mile,” Cornell said.
“She looked super and she had really good form. She was racing at Auckland week in, week out and running seconds and thirds to some nice horses.
“She was always hitting the line hard and she had brilliant gate speed, which was a big plus.
“I was hoping she would come over and be a 1.52, 1.53 mare, and that was sort of wishful thinking, so she’s definitely going better than that and she seems to be doing it really easy, which is quite amazing.
“It’s quite exciting. She’s very special, so who knows what she can do.”
Although Cornell had previously bought Ardghal from New Zealand, the trip to drive then buy Arms Of An Angel after a year of investigation was his first.
But he said it won’t be his last now.