Always B Miki pair sweep Vicbred 4YO Finals
Always B Miki’s phenomenal season continued unabated over the weekend, with the stallion siring the winners of both Group 2 Vicbred Super Series 4YO Pacers Finals at Melton on Saturday night.
The Emma Stewart trained Miki To Success was a gritty winner of the $100,000 4YO Entires and Geldings Final, with an incredibly tough performance.
The Always B Miki entire raced without cover for the majority of the 2240m trip, and despite having to work hard through the middle stages to get up outside of the leader, he was still able to kick on in the straight to get past his stablemate War Dan Buddy and score by 1.6m.
It was Miki To Success’s fifth consecutive win in the past six weeks, with the entire having also taken out the Group 3 South Australian Pacing Cup at the end of October.
The winner of the Group 1 Vicbred Super Series 3YO Final last season, Miki To Success has now won 17 races and banked $391,905 in stakes earnings.
He is out of the Elsu mare Jo Louleonie, who is a half-sister to the Group 1 winners Majestic Cruiser and Bus To Harland.
Another of Emma Stewart’s charges in Kiss, proved too good in the $100,000 4YO Mares Final.
Beaten for speed off the gate, Kiss worked her way forward, eventually taking the lead with 800m to run.
Quickening the tempo through the third quarter, the well-performed daughter of Always B Miki drew away to claim an easy victory over The Answer.
In winning, Kiss notched up her 11th career and took her earnings to just shy of $280,000.
Bred by Alabar NZ, she is out of Weownthenight, an Art Major half-sister to the New Zealand Cup winner Thefixer, who has also left this season’s Group 1 Northern Derby runner-up Midnight Miki to Always B Miki.
Another 4-year-old daughter of Always B Miki in Esmeralda, was similarly impressive in winning a feature race in New Zealand over the weekend, with the Gerard O’Reilly trained mare taking out the Pacers Green Mile at Methven on Sunday in a sizzling 1:55.6 on the grass track – the second fastest time recorded for the race.
Having only debuted back in March this year, Esmeralda has won six races, including the Listed Sires’ Stakes Southern Mares Classic during Cup Week, and almost $100,000 in stakes earnings.
She is out of the Christian Cullen mare Lauragrace.