Kate Gath became just the fourth woman to drive the winner of the Miracle Mile as Catch A Wave completed a memorable Menangle double with victory in Saturday night’s $1 million (AUD) feature.
Prepared by Gath's husband and master trainer Andy, the four-year-old pacer backed up his win in the Chariots of Fire two weeks earlier with a brilliant front-running display in the Grand Circuit classic.
There were some nervous moments when Catch A Wave forced the initial start to be aborted, but it was smooth sailing the second time around when he found the front from barrier four and held off all comers to prevail by just over three metres.
He reeled off closing quarters of :27.4 and :26.1 to clock a mile rate of 1:48.4 in defeating runner-up Spirit Of St Louis, who took a trail from an inside front row draw. Race favourite Honolua Bay was third after finishing off well from a spot midfield in the running line.
“This is pretty good,” said a stoked Kate Gath. “This is as good as it gets. I’ve just been so fortunate to drive some good horses, Andy’s found them and I guess we’ve made them [by] training them, but geez I feel lucky.”
Kate said “a bit of a gear malfunction with a rein twisting” caused the first false start, but was pleased everything went to plan after the issue was rectified.
“He was jogging,” Kate said of Catch A Wave at the top of the straight.
“I wanted to really grab hold of him. I had Spirit Of St Louis on my back who’s obviously a really good horse and I was a little bit concerned, but then there was room for him to get out so I just let him stride a little bit and he got to the line terrific.”
For Andy, the Miracle Mile success was clearly a special one.
“I’ve always been in the grandstand watching or watching from home,” said the trainer. “I haven’t been able to participate in it, I’ve only had one runner and that was about 20 years ago.
“It's such a great race to be part of, but to actually win it is an unbelievable feeling.”
Catch A Wave (Captaintreacherous - Coppagoodone - Christian Cullen) became the first horse since Have Faith In Me in 2016 to win the Chariots of Fire/Miracle Mile double in the same year, with the result taking his career record to 18 victories from 23 starts for more than $1.6 million (AUD).
He is owned by Pauline Matthews, the wife of the late Richard Matthews, who also previously raced the horse.
Earlier in the night at Menangle, Brent Lilley and Chris Alford combined with Aldebaran Zeus to win the Group 1 Hammerhead Trotters Mile in a rapid 1:52.3.
(HRV / thetrots.com.au)