“I think she can do it with the best trotters here if she’s right. She’s obviously been a headache (for her trainers), but when she gets going she’s very good,” said driver Kimberly Butt.
Father Time led for most of the early part of the race before Butt took the Derek and Adele Jones-trained Eurostyle to the front with a lap to go.
“She moves a lot better on the bit and I think that helps with her gait. She definitely enjoys being at the front.”
When she came in, she rode the best of all the runners.
“I pulled the plug, but I don’t think that was really necessary. It was more just to keep her working. She loses a bit of weight when she cleans up like this. She did it with a lot left in the tank.”
On the leash she had a length margin of three and a quarter over Midnight Dash.
EUROSTYLE REPEAT
The winning time of 3-15.5 was just outside the race record of 3-14.8 jointly held by Habibti Ivy and Royal Aspirations.
“She’s just a great little driver. I don’t understand why she doesn’t get more drives. She’s a little star for me,” Derek Jones said.
Eurostyle becomes the third mare to win the twenty-year-old class, next to Larix (2011) and Habibti Ivy (2017). Butt is the first female driver to win the Trotters Classic.
The next event for the square leg gaits is the $100,000 G1 Fred Shaw Memorial New Zealand Trotting Championship in Addington in two weeks.
“100% we’ll have a crack. Why not. If she’s right, I’m not afraid of anything. I think she’s pretty good,” Jones said.
For full race results, click here.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
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