Big weekend for Always B Miki

It was another terrific weekend of results for top pacing sire Always B Miki with feature race winners in both hemispheres.

In New Zealand, the Steve and Amanda Telfer trained filly Aardie’s Express continues to go from strength to strength, with an absolutely dominant win in the $40,000 Listed Woodlands Stud Sires Stakes Harness 7000 at Addington Raceway on Friday.

The big filly was simply in a different league to her rivals.

In front for the majority of the 1980m trip Aardie’s Express poured the speed on in the back straight and kicked clear to win by five and a half lengths in a mile rate of 1:54.4.

Her time was just 0.3 of a second outside of Belle Of Montana’s national record for a 3-year-old pacing filly, and 0.5 of a second off Amazing Dream’s overall New Zealand mare’s record for the distance.

Aardie’s Express has now won eight of her nine starts and banked $101,275 in stakes money.

She is out of the four-time Group 1 runner-up Tatijana Bromac, a $215,000 earning daughter of Rocknroll Hanover.

In Canada, Tip Top Cat and Sylvia Hanover booked their spots in Canadaʻs richest two races for juvenile pacers, with victories in their Metro Pace and Shes A Great Lady eliminations respectively at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

It was Tip Top Catʻs second win of the year and Sylvia Hanoverʻs fifth from six starts.

Tip Top Cat is out of the Western Hanover mare Western Cat, while Sylvia Hanover is out of the Artiscape mare Shyaway.

The Always B Miki filly Horizontal will also line up in this weekendʻs $525,000 Shes A Great Lady Final after finishing second in her elimination.

The Woodbine card also saw the running of the $230,000 Milton Stakes Final for pacing mares, in which another daughter of Always B Miki, Mikala, finished second.