From HarnessLink (Tony Milanese, published 2 August 2025)
Promising mare Sahara Breeze (Captaintreacherous) continued her upward path with a narrow but decisive win in the Logical Solutions Staff Free For All at Melton on Saturday evening.
Coming off the back from two impressive recent wins at Melton and Menangle where she beat a quality field of mares, Sahara Breeze was sent out favourite and showed speed from the pole but driver Chris Alford decided to take the sit behind Oliver Dan.
Yambukian who had won his five previous starts at Melton gradually worked up to race outside the leader with Miki To Success in the one out and one back trail.
Oliver Dan was being tested by Yambukian going into the back straight and on straightening he broke clear and looked likely to win yet again. But Sahara Breeze went for the insider and she darted through to snatch victory on the line by half a head from a courageous Yambukian with Oliver Dan winding up in third placing. The winner’s mile rate was 1.51.2 with the last two quarters in 26.9 and 27 seconds.
Alford reflected on the way the race panned out.
“Oliver Dan went out pretty hard and I saw Yambukian punching through so I thought it would be best for him to cop the pressure”.
“She’s doing a great job at the moment. And racing well. It’s hard work in these free for alls. They just run. The last half was 53.8 so it was a good run. She’s doing really well”.
“In terms of mares Eye Keep Smiling would probably be the benchmark but she wouldn’t be far from her with the right run. Not really sure what’s coming on. She’ll potter through this grade which is all she’s got unless some more mares races come up”.
As a three year old, Sahara Breeze showed her class winning the APG Gold Bullion for fillies and then taking out VicBred fillies Final.
Sahara Breeze is trained at Drouin West in the Gippsland by Gary and Debbie Quinlan and the five year old mare has certainly blossomed into one of the leading mares in the country.
Yambukian was gallant in defeat as he did all the work and was just beaten on the line. The good news from the Gath stable is that their star pacer Catch A Wave who was scratched is fine and will be expected to race again soon.
