Tornado blast in Great Southern Star - January 2020

By Peter Wharton

SKYVALLEY’s brilliant son Tornado Valley defeated one of the greatest fields of trotters ever assembled in this country in the Group 1 $250,000 Great Southern Star at Melton.

The gelding pinged to the top from the outset and bravely held off his rivals to pocket the $142,500 winner’s purse in a 2:01.2 mile rate over 2760 metres with the last 800 in 56.7 seconds on the rain-sodden track.

It was Tornado Valley’s 33rd lifetime success and his fifth at Group 1 level and pushed his earnings to a healthy $710,437. Earlier in the month the gelding annexed the Group 1 $50,000 Aldebaran Park Maori Mile at Bendigo in a sparkling 1:55.4.

Tornado Valley, the reigning Australian Trotter of the Year, was one of seven SKYVALLEY winners for the month and he has jumped into second place on this season’s All Aged sire list with $439,337 in progeny earnings.

Other winners by SKYVALLEY during January have been Flash Kyvalley (Melton), Blis Valley (Geelong), Mizzuri (Globe Derby Park) and, in New Zealand, the very promising War Admiral (Addington), Cuchulainn (Invercargill) and Sunny Valley (Wyndham).

The Aldebaran Park bred Group 1 winner Kyvalley Kyrie returned to her best with a spectacular finishing burst to win at Kilmore, while Aldebaran Bonny, part-owned by Aldebaran Park, notched his third success at Cambridge, NZ.

Aldebaran Zeus¸ a two-year-old colt by Muscle Hill out of Zoia Boko Swe¸ finished a nose second in a three-year-old trotters trial at Kilmore on January 22.

Aldebaran Park bred and sold the third highest priced colt, Aldebaran Banks, for $51,000 at the Australasian Premier Trotting Sale at Oaklands Junction. The colt ranks as a half-brother to the Maori Legend winner Aldebaran Shelly.

Aldebaran Park donated a service to SKYVALLEY for the winner of the Northern Oasis Trotters Handicap at Boort in January. Congratulations to the owners of the winner Galleon’s Victory NZ.